A. duperreyi has been extensively studied in the context of understanding the evolution of learning, viviparity in lizards, and temperature- and genetic-sex determination.

[3] Micro-genetic analyses have revealed that the genus Bassiana began to diversify during the Miocene, suggesting that these three lineages started to form between 16.2 and 9.7 million years ago.

[3] Within A. duperreyi, population-level diversification between the population on Tasmania, Kangaroo Island, and mainland Australia likely took place during the Upper Pliocene through the Early Pleistocene.

The specific name, duperreyi, was given by British zoologist John Edward Gray, in order to honour French naval officer Louis-Isidore Duperrey.

[5] A hatchling typically has bright red colouration on its throat, which fades to an orange-pink or disappears after a few weeks of life.

[7] However, like many other skinks, A. duperreyi has an autonomous tail that can easily break away from the rest of the body due to its unique musculature and caudal fracture plate.

[18] Nest-site availability varies significantly over time in the habitat of A. duperreyi; despite this, there is little temporal variation in communal nesting patterns.

[18] The temperature of incubation and the elevation of the clutch can affect the development of offspring before and after hatching, as well as behaviour throughout the skink's life.

[12] A study that varied thermal environments of eggs during incubation found that variable thermal regimes, rather than a continuously "hot" or "cold" incubation environment, increased the rate embryo development in A. duperreyi, as measured by an increase in embryonic heart rate.

[19] Indeed, data on A. duperreyi nesting patterns suggests that females do lay eggs in areas with high temperature variance during the day.

[20] Sex reversal of genotypic females into phenotypic males occurs in the wild, though at a low rate.

[21] Simulations of stress-induced A. duperreyi embryos found that under high-stress conditions, growth rate of hatchlings was increased.

Though non-significant, these high-stress simulating treatments resulted in a shifted sex ratio in hatchlings, favouring males.

Hatchlings have been found to suddenly stop running away from predators and face them while wiggling their tails in a vertical position.

[15] It is hypothesised that such behaviour grants the lizard a chance to escape while the predator is occupied, then seizes, the moving tail.

[15] This weakens the pursuit-deterrent explanation of this behaviour, which posits that anti-predator displays are a true reflection of an individual's ability to escape.

[24] This finding supports previous research that hypothesised tail-waving as a behaviour that deflects predators towards an expendable body part.

[24] Indeed, after waving its tail, hatchling A. duperreyi ran back towards the stimulated threat during these experiments, further strengthening the hypothesis that this behaviour is designed to misdirect the attention of predators.

[15] A. duperreyi hatchlings have been demonstrated to have the ability to learn to navigate mazes and visual discrimination tasks based on colour.

Greater neural density was found in the telencephalons of hot-incubated hatchlings, which is consistent with their apparent increase in learning ability.

[18] So far, the determined benefits of communal nesting are found to be increased hatchling size and running speed.

The energy and water expenditure of attempted attacks likely outweighs the gain of successfully feeding on larger prey.

In January 2003, lightning strikes resulted in the onset and spread of forest fires in the Brindabella Range.

Eggs collected from Ginini Flats, though exposed to atypical incubation temperatures, did not see reduced hatchling success.

Maternal preference for laying eggs in open areas did protect A. duperreyi from some levels of overheating, so only the habitat most affected by the fire was seriously impacted.

[32][1] A. duperreyi females have changed their nesting behaviour potentially in response to increasing ambient temperature over the past decade.