Jaragua sphaero, Jaragua dwarf gecko
Sphaerodactylus ariasae, commonly called the Jaragua sphaero or the Jaragua dwarf gecko, is the smallest species of lizard in the family Sphaerodactylidae.
The Jaragua sphaero's binomial name was chosen in honor of herpetologist Yvonne Arias, the leader of the Dominican conservation organization Grupo Jaragua, which was instrumental in securing the environmental protection of Jaragua National Park.
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...
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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...
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starts withSphaerodactylus ariasae is the world's smallest known reptile. The second-smallest is S. parthenopion, native to the British Virgin Islands. The Jaragua sphaero measures 14-18 mm (0.55-0.71 in) from the snout to the base of the tail and can fit on a US 25-cent coin. It has an average weight of just 0.13 g (0.00455 of an ounce). By contrast, the blue whale is 1,600 times longer and more than 1 billion times heavier.
The geographic range of S. ariasae is believed to be limited to Jaragua National Park, in the southernmost tip of the Barahona Peninsula, in the extreme southwest of the Dominican Republic and nearby forested Beata Island.
The preferred natural habitat of S. ariasae is the leaf litter of the forest floor of dry forests with limestone substratum.
S. ariasae is oviparous.