Geckos
Part of the Lizards and Snakes: Alive! exhibition.
Madagascan Giant Day Gecko & Common Leaf-Tailed Gecko
Scampering up the wall. Hanging from the ceiling. Plastered against a tree trunk, sound asleep. Many geckos do that--but HOW?
Toe Pads
Dozens of flaps of skin on each toe, each with thousands and thousands of tiny hairs, or setae (SEE-tee). Each tiny hair topped with up to a thousand tinier branches. They sometimes add up to a billion--that's right, 1,000,000,000--tiny triangular pads called spatulae (SPAH-choo-lee) that contact the surface whenever a gecko plants its feet.
Madagascan Giant Day Gecko
No suction cups, and no glue. So what's the secret of gecko stickiness? Their toes have so many hairlike structures--and each is so small--that they are attracted and held to a surface by the same molecular forces that hold liquids and solids together. Scientists are studying gecko feet in hopes of developing new, reusable adhesives.
Eyes
This gecko has a clear, immovable "spectacle" covering the eye, rather than an eyelid. Notice the pupil--it's round. Geckos active during the day have round pupils; nocturnal geckos have long, narrow pupils like keyholes.
Fast Facts
NAME: Madagascan Giant Day Gecko; Phelsuma madagascariensis grandis
SIZE: Up to 30 centimeters (12 inches)
RANGE: Northern Madagascar
DIET: Insects, fruit, nectar
Common Leaf-Tailed Gecko
Eyes
The tiny pinholes in this nocturnal gecko's pupils widen at night when the animal becomes active, to pick up all the available light. A gecko's eyes have many more light-sensitive cells than ours do.
Tail
This flat tail--Uroplatus means "flat tail"--is a fat-storage organ in the Common Leaf-tailed Gecko and many of its relatives. In hard times they draw on it for energy.
Surface
The grays and browns of the Common Leaf-tailed Gecko's scales provide good camouflage. The fringe of skin on the edges of its body also helps the animal disappear by disrupting the outline of its body and reducing or eliminating body shadows.
Fast Facts
NAME: Common Leaf-tailed Gecko; Uroplatus fimbriatus
SIZE: Up to 30 centimeters (12 inches)
RANGE: Eastern Madagascar
DIET: Insects
Meet the Family
The gecko family--Gekkonidae--is huge. It includes about 1,000 species, or well over 10 percent of all squamate species on Earth. And like any big family, it displays a lot of variety-in size, in shape, in lifestyle. Some family members are active at night, and some during the day; some have eyelids, and some don't; some don't even have legs.