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Teratoscincus scincus (SCHLEGEL, 1858)

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Higher TaxaSphaerodactylidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Common Wonder Gecko
G: Wundergecko
Chinese: 伊犁沙虎 
SynonymStenodactylus scincus SCHLEGEL 1858: 16
Teratoscincus scincus — BOULENGER 1885: 12
Teratoscincus scincus — ALCOCK & FINN 1897
Teratoscincus scincus — SMITH 1935: 30
Teratoscincus scincus — LEVITON 1959
Teratoscincus scincus — RÖSLER 2000: 118
Teratoscincus scincus — BAUER 2013 (plates)
Teratoscincus scincus — NAZAROV et al. 2017 
DistributionC and W Iran, W Afghanistan and N Baluchistan, (Pakistan), W China (below 200 m elevation, in the north from Ili River Valley of Xinjiang Uygur and the foothills and valley of the Tien, Shan mountains), E coast of the Caspian Sea south through the deserts of the former USSR, isolated populations on the Arabian Peninsula in Qatar, Oman, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan

Type locality: Ili River, E Turkestan (= Xinjiang)
Type locality: Ili River, Kazakhstan (fide KHALIKOV, pers. comm.); Ili River Valley of Xinjiang Uygur, China [fide Zhao and Adler 1993:186].  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: RMNH, possibly ZMA.RENA 15845 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Cycloid scales of back strongly imbricate, extending onto posterior part of head; 28-34 scales around midbody. (Leviton et al. 1992) 
CommentSubspecies: Teratoscincus scincus keyserlingii STRAUCH 1863 and Teratoscincus scincus rustamowi SZCZERBAK 1979 are now considered as valid species.

Synonymy: partly following WERMUTH 1965 who (following TERENTJEW & TCHERNOW 1949) synonymized T. zarudnyi and T. keyserlingii with T. scincus. Teratoscincus roborowskii has been removed from the synonymy of this species by Macey et al. 1997 (see this entry).

Distribution: see map in Macey et al. 2005: 189. Not in the UAE where it is replaced by T. keyserlingii fide Burriel-Carranza et al. 2019 
EtymologyEtymology (genus): from Greek “teras” = wonder, monster, and “skiggos” (scincus) = the name of a lizard, based on the unusual scales on the tail and the fine scales on the tongue (from Strauch 1863). 
References
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  • Abraham, G. 1983. Pflege und Zucht verschiedener Bodengeckoarten unter gleichen Haltungsbedingungen. Sauria 5 (2): 5-11 - get paper here
  • Abraham, G. 1985. Teratoscincus scincus (SCHLEGEL, 1858). Sauria 7 (4) Suppl.: 027–028 - get paper here
  • Alcock, A. W. & FINN,F. 1897. An account of the Reptilia collected by Dr. F.P. Maynard, Captain A.H. McMahon, C.I.E., and the members of the Afghan-Baluch Boundary Comission of 1896. J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal 65: 550-566 [1896] - get paper here
  • Allen, Richard 1994. Teratoscincus scincus the plate-tailed gecko. Reptilian 2 (7): 26-29
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  • Ananjeva, NB, Orlov NL; Khalikov RG; Darevsky IS; Ryabov IS & Barabanov AV 2006. The Reptiles of North Eurasia. Taxonomic Diversity, Distribution, Conservation Status [this comprises the territory of the former Soviet Union and Mongolia]. Pensoft Series Faunistica 47, 250 pp.
  • Anderson, S. C. & A. E. Leviton 1969. Amphibians and reptiles collected by the Street expedition to Afghanistan, 1965. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. (4) 37: 25-56 - get paper here
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  • Anooshe, K., Sohrab, A., Masoud, Y., Eskandar, R. P., Mahdi, R., Faraham, A., ... & Loïc, P. 2020. Reptile species richness associated to ecological and historical variables in Iran. Scientific Reports (Nature Publisher Group), 10(1) - get paper here
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  • Khan, Muhamad Sharif 2004. Annotated checklist of Amphibians and Reptiles of Pakistan. Asiatic Herpetological Research 10: 191-201 - get paper here
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  • Macey, J. Robert; YuezhaoWang; Natalia B. Ananjeva; Allan Larson and Theodore J. Papenfuss 1999. Vicariant Patterns of Fragmentation among Gekkonid Lizards of the Genus Teratoscincus Produced by the Indian Collision: A Molecular Phylogenetic Perspective and an Area Cladogram for Central Asia. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 12 (3): 320–332 - get paper here
  • Manilo, Valantina V. 1993. A karyosystematic study of the plate tailed geckos of the genus Teratoscincus (Sauria, Gekkonidae). Asiatic Herpetological Research 5: 109-111 - get paper here
  • Mebs, D. 1966. Studien zum aposematischen Verhalten von Teratoscincus scincus. Salamandra 2 (1-2): 16-20 - get paper here
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