[4] It is a relatively small skink (a kind of lizard): adults reach an average snout-to-vent length of about 8 cm (3.1 in).

Adult Bermuda skinks (also known as "rock lizards") have dark brown or black backs and are pinkish or light gray on the underside.

Juveniles are lighter in color and have black stripes running along the sides of their bodies, which fade with age.

The species occurs only in Bermuda, and exists mainly on some of the smaller islands and nature reserves on the mainland, where the populations are fragmented into isolated pockets.

It is threatened primarily by habitat destruction, predators introduced by humans (such as cats, rats, American crows, chickens, great kiskadees, yellow-crowned night herons, cane toads and anoles), as well as by human litter: the Bermuda skink has tiny claws on its feet, but no friction pads, and when it gets trapped in cast-away empty glass bottles or soda cans, it cannot climb out and thus starves or dies of heat stress or dehydration.