All Angles Creatures
Squamata · GekkonidaeEntry 12,805 of 21,572

Reptilia · Squamata

Mediodactylus stevenandersoniTorki, 2011

Steven Anderson's Keel-scaled Gecko

No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.

A nocturnal, meat-eating gecko from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 37 mm snout to vent.

Once published as Carinatogecko stevenandersoni — those names reach this page.

ReptiliaSquamataGekkonidaeMediodactylus

Grows to
36.5mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Nocturnal
Weighs up to
1.18g
greatest
Body length across Gekkonidae

Longer than only 14% of all geckos anyone has measured.

14% of 1,580 species are smaller86% larger
23 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest220 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 23 to 220 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

26 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

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
36.5mm1.5 in

max 36.49 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
33.6mm1.25 in
Largest female · snout to vent
33.6mm1.25 in

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

Body mass · greatestcomputed
1.18g0.04 oz

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

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

insects (Torki 2011), arthropods (Sadeghi and Torki 2011)

Active
Nocturnal

Crepuscular and Nocturnal / nocturnal (Sadeghi and Torki 2011, Kamali 2020)

Biome
Temperate Broadleaf & Mixed Forests
Active season · months of the year
6–7months
Region
Saharo-Sindian
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
1300–1900m
Range size
2076km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
1.5eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–2eggs

1-2, usually 2 (Sadeghi and Torki 2011)

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Gekkota
Subspecies
No
Described by
Torki
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
2011
Type locality
Iran

Keeping one

5.75 in × 5.75 in × 3.5 in(15 × 15 × 9 cm)

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

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

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 1.5 in (36.5 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Steven Anderson's Keel-scaled Gecko. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

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.

0kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 1 g, the heaviest recorded for Steven Anderson's Keel-scaled 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 · snout to vent
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • Where it lives
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • Mean clutch · largest reported
  • 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
  • Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Conservation status
  • Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Habitat
  • Active in

Others in Gekkonidae

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). Mediodactylus stevenandersoni. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/mediodactylus-stevenandersoni

@misc{mediodactylus_stevenandersoni_2026,
  title  = {Mediodactylus stevenandersoni},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/mediodactylus-stevenandersoni}
}

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.