Rodrigues giant gecko
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Model of the giant Rodrigues gecko ( Phelsuma gigas ) |
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| Phelsuma gigas | ||||||||||||
| Liénard , 1842 |
The Rodrigues giant gecko ( Phelsuma gigas ; from ancient Greek gigas 'huge' ) is a most likely extinct day gecko species . He inhabited the Mascarene Islands and the island of Frégate near Rodrigues . With a total length of over 40 cm , the Rodrigues giant gecko is considered to be the largest day gecko species that has ever been discovered.
The Kawekaweau gecko ( Hoplodactylus delcourti ), which originated in New Zealand and has been extinct for more than two hundred years, is considered to be even larger than Phelsuma gigas with a total length of over 60 cm , but falls into the genus of the New Zealand brown geckos ( Hoplodactylus ) and not in the Day geckos ( Phelsuma ) classified.
Description and coloring
The Rodrigues Giant Gecko is the largest known day gecko with a total length of up to 44 cm and a head-to-trunk length of up to 19 cm. His body color was blue-gray to gray-brown. It is said to have had black, dark spots on the top and its tail is said to have been streaked and dark gray to brown in color. The underside of Phelsuma gigas was light yellow to white in color. Its physique and color are very similar to Phelsuma guentheri , which is also a diurnal gecko species. An indication that Phelsuma gigas must have been nocturnal are its narrow, vertical and elliptical eyes, which are otherwise only found in nocturnal gecko species. Most of the descriptions of Phelsuma gigas are based on records from the 19th century, as there are no more preparations of this type today. A true-to-scale model of this type can, however, be found in the Natural History Museum of the Île aux Aigrettes . A few subfossil bones of Phelsuma gigas also still exist , but they do not suggest a complete skeleton . This fact made George Albert Boulenger doubt at the time whether the generic classification of Phelsuma gigas in the genus Gekko (the nocturnal geckos) was correct, because he did not have the complete skeleton, but only individual parts and bones of Phelsuma gigas .
Occurrence and habitat
The Rodrigues giant gecko mainly inhabited the Mascarene Islands , the island of Rodrigues and a few other surrounding islands. According to traditional sources, it lived very hidden, mainly on rocks and larger trees in tropical forests. He was last spotted on the islands off Frégate in 1842 . The original habitat was largely destroyed by humans and the settlement of cats and rats and probably led to the extinction of this species. Since Phelsuma gigas has not been sighted since 1842 or in later expeditions , it can be assumed that this species is not today more exists.
Lifestyle and diet
The Rodrigues giant gecko is considered a day gecko, but is said to have been mostly active at twilight and nocturnal and to have lived very shy and hidden. In his behavior he was very similar to Phelsuma guentheri . Since Phelsuma gigas has the reduced inner toes typical of day gecko species, it is classified in the genus Phelsuma . The Rodrigues giant gecko is said to have mainly fed on various insects and other invertebrates . Its tongue was also well suited for taking in sweet fruits, pollen and nectar .
Systematics and nomenclature
discovery
The Rodrigues giant gecko was first discovered in 1708 by François Leguat on Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean . François Leguat described the new day gecko species in his diary entries. Almost 140 years after this description, François Liénard de la Mivoye discovered the Rodrigues Giant Gecko for the second and last time in 1842 on the island of Frégate , which is also in the Indian Ocean. The description of Liénard is considered the official first description , since its scientific naming and description was made after the introduction of the binary nomenclature in 1758 by Carl von Linné . The adventurer François Leguat was not considered as the first author.
German-language naming
The Rodrigues Giant Gecko is also mentioned in a few sources under the name "Giant Gecko", whereby this is due to the English name Rodrigues Giant Day Gecko ( Giant English for huge or gigantic). The term "giant gecko" is mainly used as a synonym for the Kawekaweau gecko ( Hoplodactylus delcourti ). The English term Rodrigues Giant Day Gecko was finally adopted into German as Rodrigues Giant Gecko or Rodrigues Giant Day Gecko , as this naming indicates its origin (the island of Rodrigues) and is much more meaningful than the term "Giant Gecko".
Scientific synonyms
In the course of time, various descriptions have been written under different names, which are now used as synonyms . It can be confused with the Rodrigues day gecko , which was originally described as Phelsuma newtoni . When it turned out that the species name newtoni had already been used as a synonym for the Rodrigues giant gecko, the Rodrigues day gecko, which was also extinct in the early 20th century, was renamed Phelsuma edwardnewtoni .
- Gecko gigas Liénard , 1842
- Gecko newtoni Günther , 1877
- Gecko newtoni Boulenger , 1885
- Gecko newtoni Hoffstetter , 1946
- Phelsuma gigas Vinson & Vinson, 1969
- Phelsuma gigas Kluge , 1993
- Phelsuma gigas Rösler, 2000
- Phelsuma gigas Hallmann , 2008
Individual evidence
- ↑ J. Vinson & J.-M. Vinson: The saurian fauna of the Mascarene Islands. Mauritius Institute Bulletin, 6, pp. 203-320, 1969
literature
- Hans-Peter Berghof: Day geckos. The genus Phelsuma. 2nd Edition. Natur-und-Tier-Verlag, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-937285-45-0 .
- Gerhard Hallmann, Jens Krüger, Gerd Trautmann: Fascinating day geckos. The genus Phelsuma. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Natur-und-Tier-Verlag, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-86659-059-5 .
- PR Yadav: Vanishing And Endangered Species. Discovery Publishing House Pvt. Limited, 2004 ISBN 978-81-7141776-6
Web links
- Phelsuma gigas in The Reptile Database
- Phelsuma gigas in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2010. Posted by: World Conservation Monitoring Center, 1996. Retrieved on February 8, 2011th