''Thecadactylus'' is a

gekko ''Gekko'' is a genus of Southeast Asian geckos, Common name, commonly known as true geckos or calling geckos, in the Family (biology), family Gekkonidae. Although species such as ''Gekko gecko'' (tokay gecko) are very widespread and common, some ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

from the

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

. They are known as the turnip-tailed geckos.Köhler, G. and M. Vesely. (2011)
A new species of ''Thecadactylus'' from Sint Maarten, Lesser Antilles (Reptilia, Squamata, Gekkonidae).
''ZooKeys'' 118: 97–107. The genus belongs to the gecko

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 ...

Phyllodactylidae The Phyllodactylidae are a family of geckos (Gekkota) consisting of 163 species in 10 genera, distributed throughout the New World, North Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The family was first delineated based on a molecular phylogenetic analys ...

. Until 2007, it was believed to be

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

, with ''T. rapicauda'' the sole species. Then however, the population from upstream southern

Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...

was discovered to be very distinct and was named a new

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), ...

, ''T. solimoensis''. A third species was described in 2011. * '' Thecadactylus oskrobapreinorum'' Köhler & Vesely, 2011 * ''

Thecadactylus rapicauda The turnip-tailed gecko (''Thecadactylus rapicauda'') is a species of gecko widely distributed from Mexico southward through Central America and into South America as far south as Brazil, and on many islands in the Lesser Antilles. It was long th ...

'' Houttuyn, 1782 – turniptail gecko * '' Thecadactylus solimoensis'' Bergmann & Russell, 2007

References

*Georg August Goldfuss, Goldfuss, G.A. 1820. Reptilia. pp. 121–181 ''In:'' ''Handbuch der Naturgeschichte zum Gebrauch bei Vorlesungen. Vol. 3. Handbuch der Zoologie''. J.L. Schrag: Nürnberg. Phyllodactylidae Lizard genera Lizards of Central America Lizards of South America Lizards of the Caribbean Taxa named by Lorenz Oken {{gecko-stub