Hidden Bent-toed Gecko (Cyrtodactylus celatus)

The Hidden Bent-toed Gecko was described in 2014 on the basis of a single female specimen that was found in 1924 in the village of Tjamplong in West Timor, Indonesia. 

The species reached a size of about 7.6 cm (including the tail); it can be distinguished from congeneric species from the same general geographical region by its smaller size and by a variety of pholidotic characteristics.

When the species was described, its type locality was described as a woodland with numerous small streams; unfortunately, the same region today is a barren habitat in which the native forest appears to have been removed and replaced by rice paddies and human habitations. [1]

Hidden Bent-toed Gecko is now most likely extinct.

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References:

[1] Andrew Kathriner; Aaron M. Bauer; Mark O’Shea; Caitlin Sanchez; Hinrich Kaiser: Hiding in plain sight: a new species of bent-toed gecko (Squamata: Gekkonidae: Cyrtodactylus) from West Timor, collected by Malcolm Smith in 1924. Zootaxa 3900(4): 555-568. 2014

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edited: 15.02.2024