Carter's rock gecko, Carter's semaphore gecko
Pristurus carteri, commonly known as Carter's rock gecko or Carter's semaphore gecko, is a species of gecko, a lizard in the family Sphaerodactylidae. The species is endemic to the Sinai Peninsula.
The generic name, Pristurus, means "saw-tailed" in Latin.
The specific name, carteri, is in honor of Dr. Henry Carter who collected the holotype.
The species P. carteri has many common names such as Carter's rock gecko, ornate rock gecko, and scorpion-tailed gecko.
Diurnal animals are active during the daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night. The timing of activity by an animal depends ...
An insectivore is a carnivorous plant or animal that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which also refers to the human practice of e...
Te
TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Oviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. Precocial species are normall...
Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some anima...
P
starts withP. carteri may attain an average snout-to-vent length (SVL) of 5–6 cm (2.0–2.4 in), and a total length (including tail) of 8–9 cm (3.1–3.5 in).
P. carteri is native to Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, where it often is found basking on rocks or in urban areas.
P. carteri are often seen swaying their curly tails back and forth to each other in a way to sort of communicate to each other. The males develop little fleshy spikes on their tails upon reaching sexual maturity. When they feel threatened they curl their tails in a scorpion-like fashion and even mimic the movements a scorpion will use as a threat display; this and the tail waving are the source of the common name scorpion-tailed geckos.
Members of the genus Pristurus are diurnal. This is unusual in geckos except in the genera Phelsuma, Lygodactylus, Naultinus, Quedenfeldtia, Rhoptropus, all Sphaerodactylids, and, of course, Pristurus.
P. carteri reaches sexual maturity in roughly 10 months. Adult females lay 1–2 hard shelled eggs that are incubated at 28 °C (82.4 °F) for 70–90 days. Each neonate hatches out at a total length of about 3.5–4 cm (1.4–1.6 in).