Sphaerodactylidae

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Sphaerodactylidae
Gonatodes albogularis, male

Gonatodes albogularis , male

Systematics
without rank: Amniotes (Amniota)
without rank: Sauropsida
Superordinate : Scale lizards (Lepidosauria)
Order : Scale reptiles (Squamata)
without rank: Geckos (gekkota)
Family : Sphaerodactylidae
Scientific name
Sphaerodactylidae
Underwood , 1954

The Sphaerodactylidae are a family of gecko-like (Gekkota), to which about 200 species belong. They occur in most of South America , in Central America , on the islands of the Caribbean , in North Africa, southern Europe and the Middle East.

All sphaerodactylin geckos are very small, mostly nocturnal and live mainly on tree trunks. A clade from the three genera Coleodactylus , Lepidoblepharis and Pseudogonatodes occurs in the leaf litter of the rainforests in the Amazon basin that are not periodically flooded (terra firma). The animals are brownish in color and, when they are not moving, can hardly be seen.

The largest genus, with 105 species, is Sphaerodactylus . Some species in the genus were introduced to southern Florida by humans . They include the smallest lizard in the world - Sphaerodactylus ariasae is only three centimeters long and weighs twelve grams.

The genus Gonatodes has 31 species that are only 35 to 40 mm long. Here the males are much more colorful than the females. The Gonatodes species live mainly on the trunks of the jungle trees and hide in the aboveground root network or between the stilt roots of palm trees.

Sex dimorphism and dimorphism are common in the subfamily. In most species, the males are larger and often more colorful than the females.

Systematics

The sphaerodactyline geckos of the New World are placed in the subfamily Sphaerodactylinae. More detailed family relationships between the genera of the Old World have not yet been established. They are therefore incertae sedis . The separation between the New World Sphaerodactylins and their closest relatives in the Old World is believed to have occurred 95 million years ago. The Sphaerodactylidae family currently comprises 215 species from 12 genera:

literature

  • Eric R. Pianka, Laurie J. Vitt: Lizards. Windows to the Evolution of Diversity (= Organisms and Environments. Vol. 5). University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2003, ISBN 0-520-23401-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tony Gamble | University of Minnesota Sphaerodactylidae ( Memento of the original from April 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tc.umn.edu
  2. ↑ Sphaerodactylus in The Reptile Database ; accessed on March 24, 2015.
  3. ↑ Gonatodes in The Reptile Database ; accessed on March 24, 2015.
  4. ↑ 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 .

Web links

Commons : Sphaerodactylidae  - Collection of images, videos and audio files