Sphaerodactylus

Sphaerodactylus is a genus of geckos from the Americas that are distinguished from other Gekkota by their small size, by their round, rather than vertical, eye pupils, and by each digit terminating in a single, round adhesive pad or scale, from which their name is derived. All species in this genus are rather small, but two species, S. ariasae and S. parthenopion, are tiny, and – with a snout-vent length of about 1.6 cm (0.63 in) – the smallest reptiles in the world.

Sphaerodactylus

Samuel Thomas ( User:Columbiabotany ) · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
round-fingered geckoPBDB
Sits inside
GekkonidaePBDB
Diet
insectivore, carnivorePBDB, for Gekkonidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Gekkonidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 13.82 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 2 of 5 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 5 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 5 occurrencesPleistocene21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences698 ka–0 Mya — about 3 occurrences13.82 Mya11.7 ka20.9 Mya0 Mya

5 occurrences of Sphaerodactylus on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

5 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

El Mamey — 19.45°N, 70.70°W

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The named rock units Sphaerodactylus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

71 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Sphaerodactylus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

5 references

Each of the 5 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Sphaerodactylus

Credit
Samuel Thomas ( User:Columbiabotany )
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sphaerodactylus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itGekkonidae through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wagler 1830