You are here » home advanced search Pachydactylus otaviensis

Pachydactylus otaviensis BAUER, LAMB & BRANCH, 2006

Can you confirm these amateur observations of Pachydactylus otaviensis?

Add your own observation of
Pachydactylus otaviensis »

We have no photos, try to find some by Google images search: Google images

Higher TaxaGekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
Subspecies 
Common Names 
SynonymPachydactylus otaviensis BAUER, LAMB & BRANCH 2006: 681
Pachydactylus weberi — BAUER & LAMB 2005: 116
Pachydactylus otaviensis — MASHININI & MAHLANGU 2013
Pachydactylus otaviensis — SCHLEICHER 2020 
DistributionNamibia (Tsumeb District)

Type locality: Namibia, Oshikoto Region, Tsumeb District, Farm Uithoek.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: DNMNH (= TM) 45097 (Fig. 117): Adult male; coll. G. Voigt, 29 April 1974. Paratypes: TM. 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Snout-vent length to at least 42.9 mm (TM 85000). May be distinguished from all other members of the P. serval/weberi group by the combination of the following characters: snout blunt; rostral excluded from nostril; supranasals in narrow anterior contact; scales on dorsum of head weakly conical, those on snout much larger than those of interorbital region; interorbital and parietal granules intermixed with scattered, conical tubercles, each smaller than scales of snout; dorsal scalation heterogeneous, consisting of small conical scales interspersed with larger strongly keeled to mucronate tubercles; tubercles becoming conical on flanks; tubercles in 18 rows; thighs bearing very large conical tubercles; toes moderately long, toe pads relatively narrow; five undivided lamellae beneath digit IV of pes; tail (partly regenerated) to at least 102% of SVL, annulate, bearing whorls of large, pointed, strongly keeled tubercles, narrowly separated from each other; cloacal spurs very large bearing dorsally-directed pointed scales with concave surfaces; adult pattern of three pale bands (nape, just posterior to adpressed elbow, and posterior trunk, anterior to lumbar region) separating broader areas of grayish-brown with darker brown edges—pattern may be obscured and appear as 5–6 dark brown bands on a pale background (Figs. 117–118 in Bauer et al. 2006); juvenile pattern as adult, with three pale bands (Fig. 118).
 
CommentHABITAT: mountain savanna, karstveld, broadleaf savanna: rocky dolerite mountains, rock cracks.

Abundance: only known from its original description (Meiri et al. 2017). This is one of the species called 'lost' and 'rediscovered' by Lindken et al. 2024. 
EtymologyNamed for the Otaviberge or Otavi Highlands, a low range of dolerite hills in northeastern Namibia to which this species appears to endemic.  
References
  • Bauer, A.M. & Lamb, T. 2005. Phylogenetic relationships of southern African geckos in the Pachydactylus group (Squamata: Gekkonidae). African Journal of Herpetology 54 (2): 105-129 - get paper here
  • Bauer, Aaron M. Lamb, Trip. Branch, William R. 2006. A revision of the Pachydactylus serval and P. weberi groups (Reptilia: Gekkota: Gekkonidae) of Southern Africa, with the description of eight new species. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 57 (12-24):595-709. - get paper here
  • Bauer, Aaron M., Luis M. P. Ceríaco, Matthew P. Heinicke and David C. Blackburn. 2015. Geographic Distribution. Pachydactylus barnardi FitzSimons, 1941, Barnard's Rough Gecko. African Herp News (62): 35-37 - get paper here
  • Herrmann, H.-W.; W.R. Branch 2013. Fifty years of herpetological research in the Namib Desert and Namibia with an updated and annotated species checklist. Journal of Arid Environments 93: 94–115 - get paper here
  • Lindken T.; Anderson, C. V., Ariano-Sánchez, D., Barki, G., Biggs, C., Bowles, P., Chaitanya, R., Cronin, D. T., Jähnig, S. C., Jeschke, J. M., Kennerley, R. J., Lacher, T. E. Jr., Luedtke, J. A., Liu, C., Long, B., Mallon, D., Martin, G. M., Meiri, 2024. What factors influence the rediscovery of lost tetrapod species? Global Change Biology, 30: 1-18 - get paper here
  • Mashinini, P. L. and Mahlangu, L. M. 2013. An annotated catalogue of the types of gekkonid lizards (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae) in the Herpetology collection of the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, South Africa. Annals of the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History 3: 165-181
  • Meiri, Shai; Aaron M. Bauer, Allen Allison, Fernando Castro-Herrera, Laurent Chirio, Guarino Colli, Indraneil Das, Tiffany M. Doan, Frank Glaw, Lee L. Grismer, Marinus Hoogmoed, Fred Kraus, Matthew LeBreton, Danny Meirte, Zoltán T. Nagy, Cristiano d 2017. Extinct, obscure or imaginary: the lizard species with the smallest ranges. Diversity and Distributions - get paper here
  • Schleicher, Alfred 2020. Reptiles of Namibia. Kuiseb Publishers, Windhoek, Namibia, 271 pp.
 
External links  
Is it interesting? Share with others:


Please submit feedback about this entry to the curator