Record sizes for the Turkish house gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus, from Aegean islands, Greece

Yuval Itescu*, Rachel Schwarz, Michael Moses, Panayiotis Pafilis, Shai Meiri

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Insular animals are thought to evolve extreme sizes compared to the mainland. The reported maximum body size of the Turkish house gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus, does not go beyond 61 mm in snout-vent length, 120 mm in total length and 3.6 g in mass, across its distribution. Here we report much higher size estimates for this species on the Aegean islands of Kassos, Sifnos and Anafi. The commonly perceived drivers of insular gigantism vary across these islands. Therefore, the reasons for the extreme size on these islands, while on other Aegean islands live "normal-sized" geckos, are unclear.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)24-26
Number of pages3
JournalHerpetological Bulletin
Issue number138
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2016

Funding

FundersFunder number
Israel Science Foundation1005/12

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