Geckos
Geckos | ||||||||||||
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Tokeh ( Gekko gecko ) |
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Gekkonidae | ||||||||||||
Gray , 1825 |
Geckos (Gekkonidae) are a family of the squamata (squamata). They have been populating the earth for about 50 million years and have spread worldwide in the course of their development . Thanks to their excellent adaptability, the geckos have conquered a wide variety of habitats and can be found both in the temperate zones and in the deserts of the earth, but especially in the tropics . There they have achieved great biodiversity .
features
Geckos are small to medium-sized lizards that can grow between 1.6 cm ( Sphaerodactylus ariasae ) and almost 40 cm. The Kawekaweau gecko ( Hoplodactylus delcourti ), presumably from New Zealand and probably not extinct until the late 19th century , even reached a body length of around 60 cm. The Rodrigues giant gecko ( Phelsuma gigas ) , which died out around 1840, was similar in size .
Around three quarters of the gecko species are crepuscular or nocturnal animals with a correspondingly inconspicuous coloration and a slit pupil adapted to night activity . The helmet gecko ( Tarentola chazaliae ) is the only vertebrate species, white from the one that they can see colors at night. The geckos owe this property to their extremely light-sensitive eyes. The cones of the retina of the helmet gecko are around 350 times more sensitive to light than those of the human eyes in twilight. Sometimes the shy nocturnal and usually very nimble animals sunbathe in the early twilight or during the day, as most members of the day gecko genus like to do. In contrast to their nocturnal relatives, the latter are more conspicuously colored and have a round pupil.
Another subdivision of geckos is related to their toes. A rough subdivision can be made into lamellar geckos and clawed geckos. Thanks to their extraordinarily high level of adhesion, lamellar geckos can even walk upside down on panes of glass thanks to their feet, which are covered with billions of extremely fine hairs ( spatulae ; about 200 nanometers wide and long), using Van der Waals forces and electrostatic forces . This adhesion of the geckos is favored by a certain low level of moisture (water), but is greatly reduced if there are condensation water droplets. Geckos slip on wet glass or feet that have been soaked in water for a long time. There are a total of six subdivisions in the classification of feet alone.
Representatives of the Gekkonidae lay calcareous eggs.
In the case of Cyrtodactylus philippinicus it was experimentally proven in 2010 that the animals of this species can orientate themselves on the earth's magnetic field . This was the first evidence of a magnetic sense in scale creepers .
- ↑ This section also includes representatives of other gecko-like families that were formerly part of the Gekkonidae.
Genera and selected species
The following 55 genera with more than 1000 known species belong to the Gekkonidae family:
- Afroedura Loveridge , 1944
- Afro gecko Bauer , Good & Branch , 1997
- Agamura Blanford , 1874
- Ailuronyx Fitzinger , 1843
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Straight finger geckos ( Alsophylax Fitzinger , 1843 )
- Caspian straight-fingered gecko ( Alsophylax pipiens ( Pallas , 1814) )
- Altiphylax Yeriomchenko & Shcherbak , 1984
- Blaesodactylus Boettger , 1893
- Bunopus Blanford , 1874
- Calodactylodes Bauer & Günther , 1991
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Chondrodactylus Peters , 1870
- Bibron's thick-fingered gecko ( Chondrodactylus bibronii ( Smith , 1846) )
- Christinus Wells & Wellington , 1983
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Cnemaspis shrub , 1842
- Psychedelic rock gecko ( Cnemaspis psychedelica Grismer , Ngo & Grismer , 2010 )
- Colopus Peters , 1869
- Crossobamon Boettger , 1888
- Cryptactites Bauer , Good & Branch , 1997
- Bow finger geckos ( Cyrtodactylus gray , 1827 )
- Cyrtopodion Fitzinger , 1834
- Dixonius Bauer , Good & Branch , 1997
- Ebenavia Boettger , 1878
- Elasmodactylus Boulenger , 1894
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Geckolepis Grandidier , 1867
- Fish scale gecko ( Geckolepis megalepis Scherz , Daza , Köhler , Vences & Glaw , 2017 )
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Gehyra Gray , 1834
- Gehyra variegata Duméril & Bibron , 1836
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Gekko Laurenti , 1768
- Golden gecko ( Gekko badenii Shcherbak & Nekrasova , 1994 )
- Tokeh ( Gekko gecko ( Linnaeus , 1758) )
- Goggia Bauer , Good & Branch , 1997
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Half-finger geckos ( Hemidactylus oken , 1817 )
- African house gecko ( Hemidactylus brookii Gray , 1845 )
- Turnip-tailed viper gecko ( Hemidactylus imbricatus ( Bauer , Giri , Greenbaum , Jackman , Dharne & Shouche , 2008) )
- European half-finger ( Hemidactylus turcicus ( Linnaeus , 1758) )
- Hemiphyllodactylus Bleeker , 1860
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Heteronotia wormwood , 1965
- Heteronotia binoei Gray , 1845
- Homopholis Boulenger , 1885
- Kolekanos Heinicke , Daza , Greenbaum , Jackman & Bauer , 2014
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Lepidodactylus Fitzinger , 1843
- Maiden gecko ( Lepidodactylus lugubris ( Duméril & Bibron , 1836) )
- Luperosaurus Gray , 1845
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Lygodactylus Gray , 1864
- Yellow-headed dwarf gecko ( Lygodactylus picturatus ( Peters , 1868) )
- King dwarf gecko ( Lygodactylus rex Broadley , 1963 )
- Sky-blue dwarf day gecko ( Lygodactylus williamsi Loveridge , 1952 )
- Matoatoa Nussbaum et al. , 1998
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Mediodactylus Shcherbak & Golubev , 1977
- Aegean bare finger ( Mediodactylus kotschyi ( Steindachner , 1870) )
- Micro gecko Nikolsky , 1907
- Nactus Kluge , 1983
- Narudasia Methuen & Hewitt , 1914
- Thick-fingered geckos ( Pachydactylus Wiegmann , 1834 )
- Paragehyra Angel , 1929
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Paroedura Günther , 1879
- Paroedura picta ( Peters , 1854)
- Perochirus Boulenger , 1885
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Day geckos ( Phelsuma Gray , 1828 )
- Phelsuma borbonica Mertens , 1942
- Palm day gecko ( Phelsuma dubia ( Boettger , 1881) )
- Pseudoceramodactylus Haas , 1957
- Pseudogekko Taylor , 1922
- Ptenopus Gray , 1866
- Folded geckos ( Ptychozoon Kuhl , 1822 )
- Ramigekko Heinicke , Daza , Greenbaum , Jackman & Bauer , 2014
- Rhinogecko de Witte , 1973
- Rhoptropella Hewitt , 1937
- Rhoptropus Peters , 1869
- Stenodactylus Fitzinger , 1826
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Tenuidactylus Shcherbak & Golubev , 1984
- Caspian bow finger gecko ( Tenuidactylus caspius ( Eichwald , 1831) )
- Turkestan bow finger gecko ( Tenuidactylus bogdanovi Nazarov & Poyarkov , 2013 )
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Tropiocolotes Peters , 1880
- Dwarf desert gecko ( Tropiocolotes steudneri ( Peters , 1869) )
- Urocotyledon Kluge , 1983
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Leaf- tailed geckos ( Uroplatus Duméril , 1806 )
- Uroplatus henkeli Böhme & Ibisch , 1990
literature
- Kurt Deckert , Gisela Deckert , Günther E. Freytag, Günther Peters , Günther Sterba : fish, amphibians, reptiles (= Urania animal kingdom. ). Urania-Verlag, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-332-00376-3 .
- Tony Gamble, Aaron M. Bauer, Eli Greenbaum, Todd R. Jackman: Evidence for Gondwanan vicariance in an ancient clade of gecko lizards. In: Journal of Biogeography. Vol. 35, No. 1, 2008, pp. 88-104, doi: 10.1111 / j.1365-2699.2007.01770.x , digital version (PDF; 422.31 kB).
- Demin Han, Kaiya Zhou, Aaron M. Bauer: Phylogenetic relationships among gekkotan lizards inferred from C-mos nuclear DNA sequences and a new classification of the Gekkota. In: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. Vol. 83, No. 3, 2004, pp. 353–368, doi: 10.1111 / j.1095-8312.2004.00393.x , digitized version (PDF; 189.06 kB) ( Memento from May 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) .
- Arnold G. Kluge: Cladistic Relationships in the Gekkonoidea (Squamata, Sauria) (= Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan. Miscellaneous Publications. No. 173, ISSN 0076-8405 ). University of Michigan - Museum of Zoology, Ann Arbor MI 1987, ( full text; PDF; 1.49 MB ).
- Wilfried Westheide , Gunde Rieger (ed.): Special zoology. Volume 2: Vertebrates or Skull Animals. Spectrum - Academic publishers ao, Heidelberg et al. 2004, ISBN 3-8274-0307-3 .
Web links
- Gekkonidae in The Reptile Database
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System : Gekkonidae.
- PM Magazin : Nano-contacts optimize adhesion. ( Memento from August 12, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
- Telepolis : The Gecko Effect. Article on gecko feet adhesion.
- Manless woman power. On: Wissenschaft.de from June 9, 2005. Australian female geckos are in top shape even without males.
Individual evidence
- ^ Lina SV Roth, Linda Lundström, Almut Kelber, Ronald HH Kröger, Peter Unsbo: The pupils and optical systems of gecko eyes. In: Journal of Vision. Vol. 9, No. 3, 2009, Article 27, doi: 10.1167 / 9.3.27 .
- ↑ Hadi Izadi, Katherine ME Stewart, Alexander Penlidis: Role of contact electrification and electrostatic interactions in gecko adhesion . In: Journal of The Royal Society Interface . tape 11 , no. 98 , September 6, 2014, ISSN 1742-5689 , p. 20140371 , doi : 10.1098 / rsif.2014.0371 , PMID 25008078 ( royalsocietypublishing.org [accessed January 27, 2018]).
- ↑ Zoology: Geckos don't like wet feet. science.ORF.at , August 9, 2012, accessed on June 15, 2016. - Based on: Alyssa Y. Stark et al .: The effect of surface water and wetting on gecko adhesion. In: Journal of Experimental Biology. 2002.
- ↑ C. Marek, N. Bissantz, E. Curio, A. Siegert, B. Tacud & D. Ziggel: Spatial orientation of the Philippine bent-toed gecko (Cyrtodactylus philippinicus) in relation to its home range. In: Salamandra. Volume 46, No. 2, 2010, pp. 93-97, full text .