Teratoscincus scincusSchlegel, 1858

Common Wonder Gecko

Photograph by Muhammad Sharif Khan, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons

A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating gecko from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 120 mm snout to vent.

Once published as Teratoscincus keyserlingi — those names reach this page.

Reptilia › Squamata › Sphaerodactylidae › Teratoscincus

Grows to: 120mm; greatest recorded
Eats: Carnivorous
Active: Nocturnal
Lives up to: 13years

Body length across Sphaerodactylidae

Longer than 99% of all species in Sphaerodactylidae anyone has measured.

99% of 230 species are smaller1% 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

45 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: 2018
Population trend: Stable

The animal itself

Limbs: Four legs
Venomous: No
Fangs: None
Longest recorded life: 13years
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild: 19°C66 °F
Body temp in the wild · mean, when active: 19°C

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded: 120mm4.75 in
Length snout to vent · adult female mean: 77.2mm3 in
Largest female · snout to vent: 77.2mm3 in
Hatchling length · snout to vent: 39.5mm1.5 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent: 39.5mm1.5 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed: 41.42g1.5 oz
Body mass · a typical adult: 16.24g0.57 oz
Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured: 6.6g0.23 oz
Body mass at hatchingmeasured: 2.21g0.08 oz

How it lives

Diet: Carnivorous
How it hunts: Mixed
Active: Nocturnal
Where it lives: Terrestrial
Habitat: Desert, Forest, Grassland, Rocky, Shrubland
Biome: Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Active season · months of the year: 5–12months
Region: Saharo-Sindian
Mainland or island: Mainland
Elevation · above sea level: 70–900m
Range size: 1,871,971km²
Density: 0.2–14.1per hectare

Breeding

Reproduction: Oviparous
Average clutch: 2eggs
Eggs or young per clutch: 1–2eggs
Mean clutch: 2eggs
Clutches in a year: 2.5per year
Clutches a year: 2–3per year
First breeds at: 12months

Naming and history

Suborder: Sauria
Infraorder: Gekkota
Subspecies: No
Described by: Schlegel
Moved to another genus · since it was first described: Yes
Described in: 1858
Type locality: China

Keeping one

19 in × 19 in × 12 in(48 × 48 × 30 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 4.75 in (120 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 66 °F (19 °C).

Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. 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.

5kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 41 g, the heaviest recorded for Common Wonder 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.

Morphs

0 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 1 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.

Population and bandingbreeder consensus
How yellow or sandy the ground is and how strongly the dark banding shows across the back. Follows the population rather than a gene.
Worth knowing. The large scales of this gecko detach at a touch, tearing away with the skin beneath so a predator is left holding a patch. It regrows, but it means the animal should barely be handled — and a bare patch on a shop animal usually says something about how it was caught rather than about its health.

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
— Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
— 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
— Home range · largest recorded
— Active in

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). Teratoscincus scincus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/teratoscincus-scincus

@misc{teratoscincus_scincus_2026,
  title  = {Teratoscincus scincus},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/teratoscincus-scincus}
}

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.
AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.