成年沙漠石龙子是蜥蜴世界中的“居家男人”。

这种澳大利亚的爬行动物（Liopholis kintorei）会挖掘结构复杂的地洞，澳大利亚北莱德市麦考瑞大学的Steve McAlpin和同事如今发现，这些避难所与它们的家庭成员息息相关，其修建的时间甚至可以长达7年。

这些错综复杂的隧道网络能够横跨13米的距离，其特征是入口很多，并且将蜥蜴用来排泄的公共厕所设计在外围区域。

通过捕捉这些蜥蜴并剪断一小段尾巴用于脱氧核糖核酸（DNA）分析，研究人员发现，成年沙漠石龙子会在同一个洞穴中与它们很多代的子孙生活在一起。

研究人员在5月11日的《科学公共图书馆—综合》（PLoS One）网络版上报告说，石龙子父母和兄弟姐妹都会为家园的修建与维护作出贡献。

尽管许多鸟类和哺乳动物也会表现出这样的合作行为，但这是第一次有报告说蜥蜴会共同修建自己的家园。

沙漠石龙子非常忠于自己的伴侣，这或许也有助于解释为什么它们的家庭会联系得如此紧密。

这一发现可能支持了这样一种假设，即合作行为是从由在遗传学角度上有关联的个体构成的群体中进化而来的。

原文出处：

PLoS ONE 6(5): e19041. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019041

Lizards Cooperatively Tunnel to Construct a Long-Term Home for Family Members

Steve McAlpin, Paul Duckett, Adam Stow*

Abstract

Constructing a home to protect offspring while they mature is common in many vertebrate groups, but has not previously been reported in lizards. Here we provide the first example of a lizard that constructs a long-term home for family members, and a rare case of lizards behaving cooperatively. The great desert skink, Liopholis kintorei from Central Australia, constructs an elaborate multi-tunnelled burrow that can be continuously occupied for up to 7 years. Multiple generations participate in construction and maintenance of burrows. Parental assignments based on DNA analysis show that immature individuals within the same burrow were mostly full siblings, even when several age cohorts were present. Parents were always captured at burrows containing their offspring, and females were only detected breeding with the same male both within- and across seasons. Consequently, the individual investments made to construct or maintain a burrow system benefit their own offspring, or siblings, over several breeding seasons.