Abstract:To reveal the basic characteristics of the digestive system of Tsinling dwarf skink (Scincella tsinlingensis), gross anatomy, paraffin section, H.E staining and Grimelius silver staining were used to observe the histomorphology of digestive system, the distribution density and the morphology of argyrophil cells in digestive tube. Statistical analysis is performed using Duncan multiple comparison test (SPSS 17.0 software). The H.E staining shows that in addition to the tongue, the tissue structure of digestive tube can be divided into mucosa, submucosa, muscularis and adventitia. The tube’s thickness of the pyloric part of stomach is the thickest (221.03 ± 5.94 μm) (Fig. 2e) and the duodenum is the thinnest (63.59 ± 1.17 μm) (Fig. 2f). The number of mucosal fold is different among digestive tubes. There are 17 - 20 folds in jejunum (Fig. 2h), followed by ileum (15 - 17) (Fig. 2i) and duodenum (11 - 13) (Fig. 2f). The thickness of muscularis is also different in different part of the digestive tube, and the pyloric part of stomach is the thickest (145.19 ± 3.27 μm) (Fig. 2e). There are many gastric glands lies in the lamina propria of the gastric mucos, such as cardiac gland, fundic gland and pyloric gland (Fig. 2c-e) and some intestinal glans in the lamina propria of the duodenum (Fig. 2f). Moreover, the epithelium mucosa of duodenum contains a little amount of goblet cells (Fig. 2g). The hepar parenchyma is composed of liver cells and the boundaries among hepatic lobule are not distinct. Some blood sinus, pigment cells, interlobular veins and interlobular bile ducts can be observed in the hepar’s connective tissue (Fig. 3a, b). The islets of pancreas are poorly developed (Fig. 3c). The Grimelius silver staining showes that argyrophil cells were widely distributed in the digestive tube except pharynx (Fig. 4a). The argyrophil cells are mainly distributed in the lamina propria, mucosal epithelium and glandular epithelium (Fig. 4). The shapes of argyrophil cells display cone-shape, oval, round or other irregular shapes (Fig. 4). The density of argyrophil cells in the body of stomach is the highest (16.80 ± 1.24), and the jejunum is the lowest (1.40 ± 0.24). There is extremely significant difference between the two parts (P<0.01) (Table. 1). Compared with most reptiles, the digestive system of the Tsinling dwarf skink shows little structural difference. The distribution and morphology of argyrophil cells in the digestive tube are likely consistent with their function in S. tsinlingensis.