50 Fun Facts About Gecko

Geckos are found on every continent except which one?

They stick to warm climates, which is why so many species end up living in people's houses in the tropics.

Roughly how many gecko species exist, making them the most species-rich group of lizards?

That is more than a quarter of all lizard species; the suborder Gekkota is split into seven families and about 125 genera.

Geckos are unique among lizards for what ability?

Most use chirps and clicks socially, tokays have a famously loud mating call, and some hiss when threatened.

Most geckos lack eyelids; instead the eye is covered by a transparent membrane called what?

Since they cannot blink, they lick the brille clean with their tongues whenever it gets dusty.

How do eyelid-less geckos keep their eyes clean and moist?

The only geckos with true movable eyelids are the family Eublepharidae, which includes the leopard gecko.

A gecko's colour vision in low light is roughly how much more sensitive than a human's?

Nocturnal geckos evolved from day-active ancestors that had lost their rod cells, so they re-engineered their cones for night work instead.

Which household pests do house geckos helpfully eat, making them welcome guests in warm countries?

They hunt around porch lights at night, and their chirping is often the first sign one has moved in.

The smallest gecko, the Jaragua sphaero, measures about how long?

It was discovered in 2001 on a small island off Hispaniola and weighs a little over a tenth of a gram.

The word 'gecko' comes from a Malay word that imitates what?

The tokay's croak gave the whole group its name, in Malay, Latin and English alike.

What do many geckos do with their shed skin?

Leopard geckos shed every two to four weeks; young ones may shed weekly.

Roughly what share of gecko species have adhesive toe pads?

The pads evolved independently in around eleven gecko lineages and were lost again in at least nine.

Gecko adhesion was long credited to which weak intermolecular attraction?

A 2014 study argued the grip is mainly electrostatic, from contact electrification, rather than van der Waals or capillary forces.

Which slippery material is notably hard for geckos to stick to?

Its very low surface energy defeats the setae; the same setae are self-cleaning and shed dirt within a few steps.

How does a gecko unstick its foot from a surface to take the next step?

The peeling works like removing tape, freeing the microscopic spatulae one by one so only a little force is needed.

About how many hair-like setae are packed into each square millimetre of a gecko's footpad?

Each seta is 5 micrometres across and tipped with hundreds of even smaller spatulae, each shorter than a wavelength of visible light.

In theory, the setae of a typical 70-gram gecko could support what weight?

That is close to two thousand times its own body weight; in practice geckos run well below their maximum grip.

Complete immersion in what reduces gecko adhesion, even though a little humidity improves it?

Thin molecular water layers on the setae actually increase the surface energy and strengthen the grip; a full soaking does the opposite.

The mossy leaf-tailed gecko hides its outline using what?

Its bark-and-lichen colouring plus that fringe of skin makes it practically invisible on a trunk by day.

How often can a gecko replace each of its roughly 100 teeth?

A small replacement tooth waits beside each grown one; unusually for squamates, geckos have lost the palatal teeth on the roof of the mouth.

The oldest known fossils of modern geckos are preserved in amber from which country?

They are about 100 million years old and already show adhesive pads on the feet.

Legless 'snake lizards' in which family are actually geckos?

They are one of the seven families in the suborder Gekkota; the blind lizards of Dibamidae were once lumped in but no longer are.

The most commonly kept pet gecko cannot climb vivarium glass because it lacks what?

That species is the leopard gecko, whose movable eyelids mark it out as a member of the Eublepharidae.

Ptychozoon geckos of Southeast Asia are known as 'flying' or 'parachute' geckos because of what?

The flaps also help them melt into tree bark when they are not gliding between trunks.

In Greek myth, Demeter turned the boy Ascalabus into a gecko for what offence?

She splashed the rest of her drink over him and he became a multicoloured lizard.

The leopard gecko is sometimes called the first what?

Decades of captive breeding have produced dozens of colour morphs far from the wild spotted pattern.

The leopard gecko is native to dry regions of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Nepal and which other country?

Winter there can drop below 10 °C, sending the geckos underground into brumation to live on stored fat.

The leopard gecko's genus name Eublepharis means what in Greek?

Movable upper and lower eyelids are the trait that separates its subfamily from all other geckos; macularius means 'spotted'.

A leopard gecko's thick tail works like a camel's hump because it stores what?

Dropping the tail to escape a predator is costly for exactly that reason: the gecko loses its emergency larder.

After a leopard gecko drops its tail, the detached tail can keep twitching for up to how long?

Fractures built into the tailbone let it snap off cleanly, and rapid vasoconstriction keeps blood loss minimal.

With good care, captive leopard geckos can live for more than how many years?

In the wild the average is under five years, so a pet gecko can outlive four wild generations.

The tokay gecko is believed to rank where among gecko species by size?

It averages 25 to 30 cm but can hit 40; only the giant leaf-tail gecko and the New Caledonian giant gecko are bigger.

The tokay gecko is used in traditional Chinese medicine under what name?

Demand is high enough that dishonest sellers have fitted monitor lizards with prosthetics to pass them off as colossal tokays.

Male tokay geckos are known for a loud mating call and what temperament?

Big males can pierce skin with a bite, which is why the species is a poor choice for beginner keepers.

The tokay gecko has been introduced to which US state, among other places outside its native Asia?

It has also established itself on Martinique and the islands of Belize, and possibly Hawaii.

The crested gecko was thought extinct until it was rediscovered in which year?

An expedition led by German herpetologist Robert Seipp turned it up; it is now one of the most popular pet geckos.

Unlike most geckos, the crested gecko cannot do what after dropping its tail?

As a result most wild adults are tailless; the eyelash-like fringe over the eyes gives it its other name.

The common house gecko is known in parts of South Asia by which onomatopoeic name?

It also answers to chipkali, wall gecko and moon lizard, and lives about seven years.

The gold dust day gecko, unusually for a gecko, is active when?

It also has an unusual diet for a gecko, eating nectar and pollen alongside insects, and often gangs up on a single flowering plant.

Besides insects, the gold dust day gecko feeds on what?

Groups will crowd onto one plant to lap up nectar and pollen; the species also lives on the Comoros and Mascarenes and has been introduced to Hawaii.

The GEICO Gecko mascot speaks with which accent?

The species behind the character is real: a green, gold-flecked, nectar-eating day gecko from the western Indian Ocean.

Which English actor took over as the voice of the GEICO Gecko in 2005?

Earlier voices included Andrew Randall and, briefly, Frasier star Kelsey Grammer.

The largest living gecko, Rhacodactylus leachianus, is native to where?

'Leachies' can reach 43 cm and half a kilogram, an example of island gigantism.

The world's smallest known reptile, the Jaragua sphaero, can fit on what?

It measures 14 to 18 mm from snout to tail base and lives in leaf litter in the far south-west of the Dominican Republic.

The extinct giant gecko Gigarcanum delcourti is known from one unlabelled specimen in a museum in which city?

Long assumed to be New Zealand's legendary kawekaweau, DNA later pointed to a different Pacific island group; at 60 cm it is the biggest gecko known.

Leaf-tailed geckos of the genus Uroplatus are found only on which island and its coastal islets?

The larger species have more marginal teeth than any other living amniote and spend the day hanging head-down on tree trunks.

Eichstaettisaurus, the best-supported early relative of geckos, comes from the Jurassic of which country?

Norellius from the early Cretaceous of Mongolia is another usual suspect on the gecko family tree.

Geckos belong to which suborder of lizards?

The suborder is split into seven families with roughly 125 genera, including the legless pygopods.

Into how many families is the gecko suborder divided?

They range from Carphodactylidae to Sphaerodactylidae; the blind lizards of Dibamidae are sometimes counted too.

How do most geckos reproduce?

A few species are live-bearing and a handful can reproduce by parthenogenesis with no males at all.

Nocturnal geckos evolved from day-active ancestors whose eyes had lost what?

Their solution was to adapt cones to work in dim light, giving them colour vision 350 times more sensitive than ours.