The Persian wonder gecko (''Teratoscincus keyserlingii)'', also known
commonly as the giant frog-eyed gecko and Keyserling's wonder gecko, is a
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of
lizard
Lizard is the common name used for all Squamata, squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most Island#Oceanic isla ...
in the
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Sphaerodactylidae
The Sphaerodactylidae are a Family (biology), family of geckos (Gekkota) distributed in North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, as well as in Southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and into Central Asia. The fam ...
. The species is native to western
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
.
Etymology
The
specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
, ''keyserlingii'', is in honor of
Alexander von Keyserling, who was a
Baltic German
Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...
geologist and biologist.
Geographic range
''T. keyserlingii'' is found in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
, and the
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...
.
Habitat
The preferred natural
habitat
In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...
of ''T. keyserlingii'' is
desert
A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...
, at altitudes from sea level to .
[
]
Description
The holotype
A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...
of ''T. keyserlingii'' has a total length of , which includes a tail long.Strauch
Strauch, a German word meaning ''bush'' or ''shrub
A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. ...
(1863).
Behavior
''T. keyserlingii'' is terrestrial
Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial.
Terrestrial may also refer to:
* Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...
and nocturnal
Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite.
Nocturnal creatur ...
.[
]
Reproduction
''T. keyserlingii'' is oviparous
Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...
.[
]
References
Further reading
* Macey, J. Robert; Fong, Jonathan J.; Keuhl, Jennifer V.; Shafiei, Soheila; Ananjeva, Natalia B.; Papenfuss, Theodore J.; Boore, Jeffrey L. (2005). "The complete mitochondrial genome of a gecko and the phylogenetic position of the Middle Eastern ''Teratoscincus keyserlingii'' ". ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 36: 188–193.
* Sindaco R, Jeremčenko VK (2008). ''The Reptiles of the Western Palearctic. 1. Annotated Checklist and Distributional Atlas of the Turtles, Crocodiles, Amphisbaenians and Lizards of Europe, North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia''. (Monographs of the ''Societas Herpetologica Italica''). Latina, Italy: Edizioni Belvedere. 580 pp. .
* Strauch A (1863). "''Characteristik zweier neuen Eidechsen aus Persien'' ". ''Bulletin de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St-Pétersbourg'' 6: 477–480. (''Teratoscincus keyserlingii'', new species, p. 480). (in German and Latin).
* Tamar K, Els J, Kornilios P, Soorae P, Tarroso P, Thanou E et al. 6 authors(2021). "The demise of a wonder: Evolutionary history and conservation assessments of the Wonder Gecko ''Teratoscincus keyserlingii'' (Gekkota, Sphaerodactylidae) in Arabia". ''PLoS ONE'' 16 (1): e0244150.
Teratoscincus
Reptiles of Afghanistan
Reptiles of the Arabian Peninsula
Reptiles of Iran
Reptiles of Pakistan
Reptiles described in 1863
Taxa named by Alexander Strauch
{{gecko-stub