Reptilia · Squamata
Ptyodactylus guttatusHeyden, 1827
Sinai Fan-fingered Gecko
Photograph by Kseniia Marianna Prondzynska, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A rock-dwelling, active by day or night, meat-eating gecko from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 94 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Phyllodactylidae › Ptyodactylus
- Grows to
- 94mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Cathemeral
- Lives up to
- 10.9years
Longer than 82% of all species in Phyllodactylidae anyone has measured.
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 34 to 179 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
44 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
- 2012
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 10.9years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 30.9–34°C88–93 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 29°C84 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 21–34°C70–93 °F
Amitai and Bouskila 2001, Werner et al. 1993 ( 7 years, 9 months); Slavens and Slavens 1999: 6 and 11 months, Yom-Tov in Hughes 1988: 10 years, 11 months (as hasselquistii), Werner & Sivan 1994: a specimen caught as adult lived 7 years and 10 months in captivity, Werner 2016 (9 years and 9 months in captivity), 11 in captivity (Bar et al. 2021)
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 94mm3.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 67.4mm2.75 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 67.4mm2.75 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 27.2mm1 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 27.2mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 21.32g0.75 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 8.84g0.31 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.5g0.02 oz
max 94 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Cathemeral
- Where it lives
- Saxicolous
- Habitat
- Caves, Grassland, Shrubland, Subterranean
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 8–12months
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2000m
- Range size
- 525,303km²
Arthropods, wide variety of invertebrates and "some small geckos plants and pebbles" (Saber et al. 1995), arthropods (Perry and Brandeis 1992, Werner 2016)
e.g., Saber et al. 1995, Sion et al. 2020, pers. obs.
Crepuscular / cathemeral (Disi et al., Baha El Din 2006, Johnston and Bouskila 2007, Werner 2016, pers. obs., Frankenberg 1971) / more active at night in fool moon (Werner and Sivan 1994) / nocturnal but not uncommonly active during the day (Saber et al. 1995), mostly nocturnal but also active by day (Bar et al. 2021, sm, pers obs.)
e.g., pers. obs.; rarely arboreal, Werner and Sivan 1994
from -368 to 935 (SM, pers. Observations), 0 to 2000 or more (Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 2eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–2eggs
- Mean clutch
- 2eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 4per year
- Clutches a year
- 4–5per year
- First breeds at
- 24months
2 (Werner 1995, TAU experimental zoo data, Bar et al. 2021, Goldberg 2011, n=3;)
Werner 1995, TAU experimental zoo data, Bar et al. 2021, Goldberg 2011, n=3;
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Gekkota
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Heyden
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1827
- Type locality
- Egypt
Keeping one
15 in × 15 in × 9.25 in(38 × 38 × 24 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.
Lives on rock, so stable hard surfaces and basking ledges suit it.
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 3.75 in (94 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 88–93 °F (30.9–34 °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.
3kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 21 g, the heaviest recorded for Sinai Fan-fingered 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
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Phyllodactylidae
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). Ptyodactylus guttatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/ptyodactylus-guttatus
@misc{ptyodactylus_guttatus_2026,
title = {Ptyodactylus guttatus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/ptyodactylus-guttatus}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.