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Mossy Leaf-Tailed Gecko — printable fact sheet
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Mossy Leaf-Tailed Gecko
Uroplatus sikorae
Uroplatus sikorae is one of the most complete camouflage systems in any vertebrate. Its crypsis does not rest on colour alone: a fringe of flattened dermal flaps runs down each side of the body, along the jaw and around the limbs, and when the gecko presses itself flat to a lich…
Did you know?
- Despite their extraordinary camouflage, Mossy Leaf-Tailed Geckos can drop their tails as a last-resort defense mechanism to escape predators.
- Uroplatus geckos have among the most light-sensitive eyes measured in any vertebrate, roughly 350 times more sensitive at low light than a human's, and they can discriminate colour by starlight. The dermal flaps only work when the gecko positions itself correctly on a substrate and presses down, and a gecko sitting on a smooth green leaf is suddenly extremely obvious. The species was named after the collector Sikora, and the genus name means "flat tail."
What I learned
Draw the mossy leaf-tailed gecko
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