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Squamata · SphaerodactylidaeEntry 8,760 of 21,572
O'Shaughnessy's Gecko, Gonatodes concinnatus

Reptilia · Squamata

Gonatodes concinnatusO'Shaughnessy, 1881

O'Shaughnessy's Gecko

Photograph by Joda5, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons

A day-active, meat-eating gecko from the Neotropic region, reaching 53 mm snout to vent.

ReptiliaSquamataSphaerodactylidaeGonatodes

Grows to
52.6mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Arboreal, terrestrial
Body length across Sphaerodactylidae

Longer than 87% of all species in Sphaerodactylidae anyone has measured.

87% of 230 species are smaller13% larger
17 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest150 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 17 to 150 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

38 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living
Extant
Conservation status
Least Concern
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2014
Population trend
Stable

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
24.6°C
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
27.7°C82 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
26.4–29°C80–84 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
52.6mm2 in

max 52.6 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
42mm1.75 in
Largest female · snout to vent
42mm1.75 in

snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length

Hatchling length · snout to vent
18.5mm0.7 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
18.5mm0.7 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
3.58g0.13 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

Body mass at hatchingmeasured
0.15g0.01 oz

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

Arthropods (e.g., Torres-Carvajal and Salazar-Valenzuela 2013)

How it hunts
Sit and wait

Sit and Wait

Active
Diurnal

Diurnal and Crepuscular / diurnal (Dixon and Soini 1986)

Where it lives
Arboreal, terrestrial

Arboreal and leaf litter (Whitworth and Beirne 2011)

Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Highest it lives · above sea level
1000m

84-604 (Altamirano-Benavides et al. 2019)

Range size
851,426km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
1eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1eggs

Torres-Carvajal and Salazar-Valenzuela 2013

Mean clutch
1eggs

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Gekkota
Subspecies
No
Described by
O'Shaughnessy
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1881
Type locality
Ecuador

Keeping one

8.25 in × 8.25 in × 8.25 in(21 × 21 × 21 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.

Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.

Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.

From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 2 in (52.6 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 76 °F (24.6 °C).

Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.

Feeding

A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.

Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.

1kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 4 g, the heaviest recorded for O'Shaughnessy's Gecko — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
  • Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Longest recorded life
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Clutches in a year
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • Age at first breeding · female
  • Mature from · youngest recorded
  • Mature by · oldest recorded
  • Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Red List criteria
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Active in
  • Lowest it lives · above sea level

Others in Sphaerodactylidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Gonatodes concinnatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/gonatodes-concinnatus

@misc{gonatodes_concinnatus_2026,
  title  = {Gonatodes concinnatus},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/gonatodes-concinnatus}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.