''Pachydactylus kladaroderma'', also known as the thin-skinned gecko, fragile thick-toed gecko, or thin-skinned thick-toed gecko, is a member of the family

Gekkonidae Gekkonidae (the common geckos) is the largest family of geckos, containing over 950 described species in 64 genera. Members of the Gekkonidae comprise many of the most widespread gecko species, including house geckos ('' Hemidactylus''), tokay ...

, also known as the typical geckos, found in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

Etymology

The name "kladaroderma" is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

"kladaros" which means "easily broken," and "derma" which means "skin." This is in reference to the fragile skin of the species.

Description

Pachydactylus kladaroderma is differentiated from other members of the genus

Pachydactylus ''Pachydactylus'' is a genus of insectivorous geckos, lizards in the family Gekkonidae. The genus is endemic to Africa, and member species are commonly known as thick-toed geckos. The genus also displays rich speciation, having 57 distinct spec ...

by a low number of granules (3-6) bordering the mentals, an ear opening that resembles a slit, a 79% incidence of the superlabial entering the nostrils, the infralabials adjacent the mental (5-13,) and an overall dull brown coloring.

Distribution

Known only from South Africa in the

Cape Fold Mountains The Cape Fold Belt is a fold and thrust belt of late Paleozoic age, which affected the sequence of sedimentary rock layers of the Cape Supergroup in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It was originally continuous with the Ventana Mount ...

which surround the

Little Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi- desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ...

and the southern escarpment.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5076505 kladaroderma Geckos of Africa Reptiles of South Africa Reptiles described in 1996 Taxa named by William Roy Branch