Conrad Hoskin from James Cook University's School of Marine and Tropical Biology, and Patrick Couper from the Queensland Museum said the new lizards were named as elegant Rainbow Skink, and the Orange-flanked Rainbow Skink.
"Both species are small skinks belonging to the genus Carlia, a diverse group of skinks in tropical Australia," Hoskin said in a statement.
"The species names are in reference to the bright colours sported by breeding males of each species; 'decora' means 'beautiful' in Latin, with males of that species marked with vivid orange and blue, while 'rubigo' translates to 'rust', referring to the rusty orange colour of males of that species," he said.
Hoskin said the Elegant Rainbow Skink was found in forests in the Townsville and Mackay areas.
Hoskin said a third species was also described as the Whitsunday Rainbow Skink.
"This species had previously been recognized as a subspecies of another skink species, but our research found that it was sufficiently different from all other populations that it should be elevated from subspecies to full species status," he said.
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TheWhitsunday Rainbow Skink is only found on Whitsunday, Hook, Hayman and Lindeman Islands. The species name 'inconnexa' means 'unjoined', in reference to the isolation of this skink on islands.
The study looked in detail at morphology, colour pattern and genetics of all populations thought to be this species and found that in reality Carlia pectoralis actually consisted of four species that are genetically distinct and can be identified based on morphology and colour pattern.
"It just goes to show that we still haven't discovered all the diversity that's out there, even in a fairly well known group like lizards in a fairly well studied area like eastern Australia," he said.