Tachygia

Tachygia is an extinct genus of skink.

The giant skink of Tonga Tachygia microlepis slipped into extinction before anything was known about it, except that it existed. Just two specimens survive, both preserved in alcohol in the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, where they have lain for nearly two centuries. They were collected by naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard on a voyage around the world with Captain Jules Dumont d'Urville aboard the French corvette l'Astrolabe between 1826 and 1829.

The skinks were probably brought aboard by visiting Tongans, who traded with the naturalists through the worst of their peril. Perhaps Dumont d'Urville's pretended interest extended as far as the giant skink. If so he was one of just a handful of Europeans to see a fresh or living specimen. The timing and cause of their extinction is entirely unknown.