Talk:Gecko

Gecko Sound Source?

Does anyone know how geckos make their noise?

Translation request

Is "Pasar Tokek" the same as Gekko gecko? they are sexy

Cicak is the Indonesian word for Gekko.

Odd Sentence in Opening Paragraph

There is a sentence in the first paragraph that appears completely out of context, or if it is relevant is not explained. It simply says "Geckos are HELLO." Vandalism? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shanedphillips (talk • contribs) 07:53, 14 March 2008 (UTC) Hi i was just wandering if anyone could help me as i've searched all over the net, i have an infestation of gecko's in the house which doesn't bother me at all cos they are cute and eat all the insects but they like one room in particular and i'm due to have a baby very shortly and this room happens to be baby's new crib, i was wanting to know if there are any smells or plants or anything like that, that might deter them from this room, i don't want to harm them or kill them just get them away from this room as the poo they leave is everywhere and with a newborn in there i would freak out too much if they were on baby and just pooing all over baby's gear, so if anyone knows of anything that could help me out in my desperate situation that would be great. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.165.64.95 (talk) 03:30, 19 March 2008 (UTC) The page has been vandalized once more, please adress this issue as soon as possible

Spatula?

Near the end of the first section: "If a gecko had every one of its spatulae in contact with a surface, it would be capable of holding aloft a 120Kg man.", with a link to the Spatula article. 24.21.149.53 11:59, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Stickeyness

How do they walk on vertical walls? With their special toes... Dora Nichov 14:29, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Opening Paragraph

I think this might be a joke.. look at it

Just looks like the typical junior high level work that typifies Wiki to me. Jmdeur (talk) 18:54, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Deleted Geico

Geico does not belong in the Gecko article, as the relation is not encylopedic. Someone made the analogy to Micky Mouse; Micky Mouse is much more famous than Geico. It's also part of a single sentence as part of larger section on mice in popular culture in general, in a longer article. Please comment on the talk page before restoring Geico.

Whoever said the Geico Gecko talks with a South African Accent is also wrong - it's English. I beilieve the actor in question is Jake Wood and he's British. A262 15:36, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Possible typo

I think there's a typo in the right hand column. The error might be "Gekkonidae" as it's spelled "Gekkoninae" in the body of the text, and "Gekkonidae" is only mentioned half a dozen times on Google whereas "Gekkoninae" is very popular.

Hello, if conventions are the same than in France, Gekkonidae is the name of the familly of the geckos (in the biological sense) while Gekkoninae is a sub-familly (still in the biological sense) of the previous one, containing the true geckos.

Please note that depending of the used classification the sub-familly may not appears.

By the way I do not understand why Gekkonidae is a redirect to Gecko, as the first one is about a biological term and the second one is about an animal. Regards, 134.158.71.97 17:04, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Spread of Geckos'

Walking home tonight, August in Yokohama, Japan, I saw a cat with its paws against the wall after something. At first I thought it was a lizard on the wall but on closer inspection I was most surprised to see a 3 inch gecko. No doubt about it, it was a gecko (I am a frequent traveller around Asia and recognise gecko's). Tried to catch it but in their distinctive manner wriggled away in a burst of speed. Perhaps an uninvited guest from a traveler to tropical climes, possibly Hawai or Bali. Can't imagine it will survive a Yokohama winter but should be OK for the summer.

Simon - Aug 9 2005

add species counts

Mention total numbers of species. --Jidanni 2006-04-15

Parthenogenic species?

A mention on the discussion board for Leopard Geckos made me curious, what species of geckos are capable of asexual reproduction?

Grammer/Formatting Edit

I made a couple of minor grammer/formatting edits to the Common Species list at the end of the article. ClixTrek 06:56, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

You sure you're qualified to do "grammer" edits? Maox 19:08, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

New article needs mergin

Indigenous Geckos of Madagascar was just created. Out of my realm. Someone merge, delete or take some action. --meatclerk 11:07, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I do not believe that this article should be merged to the gecko article for several reasons:

• The main purpose of the article was to describe all of the geckos species that inhabit Madagascar (not done by the page entitled "Gecko")
• None of the species that are mentioned in the article entitled "Gecko" are indigenous to Madagascar.
  • Because the geckos of madagascar are in a specific region of the world, i deemed it unfit to put that information into an article providing a general overview of the geckos as a family of lizards.
• The other purpose was to briefly describe the genus' of geckos briefly for reference to the habitats within madagascar ( a topic only briefly touched upon in the article discussing dry-deciduous ecosystems in madagascar); where this does not occur in the article (the genus Geckolepis), the information for the genus was very limited and not enough to create data of value with the current research).

Bheinrich 15:36, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Not withstanding natural divisions need for species, as Indigenous Geckos of Madagascar seems to be, 'genus' as you stated should be a seperate over arching article. Nontheless, the aforementioned article needs some merging, perhaps a good subsection, it needs cleanup work(now). Lastly, a 'family' article might be in order.

Respectfully --meatclerk 20:24, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

The problem with it being a bit choppy is the fact that the information on many of these species is very few and far between, for example: the geckolepis genus took about 2 hours to get that measly bit of information and make sure that i had checked the remote corners of the internet for every speck of info, but alas, that seemed to be all of it. I do agree with a future merger, however the current articles for the remainder of the world do not exist, so i believe it would simply be this article along with several blank sections. But yes, it would be nice to have more information included at some point in time but with the information on many of these species is unknown because of the lack of information on many of the creatures of Madagascar. Bheinrich 02:20, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Harmless

Would it be a good idea to add that they are harmless to humans (as I'm guessing they are)? Perhaps where it's said that "several species of geckos make their home inside human habitations." Stop The Lies 22:52, 11 February 2007 (UTC)Stop_The_Lies

Nomenclature, sounds, calls, et cetera.

Is it true geckos are named after the sound they emit? This article is really substandard.  :/ 211.30.71.59 03:17, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Tail liquid?

A few species have the ability to shoot an irritating liquid out of the end of their tails

^Is this true? If so, which species? I've never heard of Geckos being able to do this. O_o After looking around on the internet, this article and its clones are the only places which state that Geckos have this ability...

K00bine 22:00, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Combining pages

Shouldn't the pages Gekko and Gecko be combined? -m-i-k-e-y- 14:39, 25 March 2007 (UTC) Nope, Gecko is common name of the family of lizards and describes the family, Gekko is the latin name, and more taxonomy oriented. 71.197.85.32 04:27, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

International Space Station

Why is the ISS mentioned here? If there is a point, what is it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 87.189.91.104 (talk) 13:13, 29 April 2007 (UTC).

Lead is too long

The lead is too long for this article. (WP:LEAD) --Matt57 ^{(talk•contribs)} 19:16, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

I added a section heading to split it apart. I'm also going to remove that empty "predators" section, as I'd guess they have different ones for each region/species. --Quiddity 04:03, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Van der Waals?

The Gecko foot adhesion is described as van der Wasls forces, shouldn't it be correctly refered to as the Casimir effect, as VdW is generaly used only for describing the intermolular forces on a mollecular scale. For the macroscopic effect of these forces, it is the [casimir effect] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.86.51.104 (talk) 02:33, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

Never saw wall lizard climbing on wall covered with shiny tiles

I read that gecko can climb even on shiny glass. But I never saw wall lizard climbing on wall covered with shiny tiles. It is my observation, say, in last 25 years. If I do not find reference on internet, I will include this in article.

abhishka 08:16, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Calculation?

A single foot of a gecko can contain almost 500,000 setae each about twice the diameter of a human hair, i.e. 100 millionths of a meter, and each of these is in turn tipped with between 100 and 1,000 spatulae.

By my calculations this would make each foot the size of a credit card! So I rewrote it, bringing in a newer, 2005, paper from Hansen and Autumn, the same scientists as in the 2002 cite. I tried to make it clearer by showing the thinnest human hair would contain over 12 setae, and that they resist about 10 atmospheres stress. -84user (talk) 00:32, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

I just added an image of Cyrtodactulus pulchellus to Malayan forest gecko page. Can this be added to the gecko http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Cyrtodactylus-pulchellus.jpg —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dracoflyer (talk • contribs) 04:44, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Natural Habitats? General feeding habits?

Though potentially difficult at this taxanomic level it might be good to have something of the form: Most geckos eat mainly insects but some eat foo and a few species eat bar

Gekos as pets?

I know that several species are sold in pet stores fairly commonly. Identifying these might be useful.

Teflon & Geckos

In the section about Gecko's feet being able to stick to most surfaces via the Van der Waals force, it says that a Gecko's feet cannot stick to Teflon, as this "was specifically engineered to resist the Van der Waals force." However, the article about Teflon states that Teflon was discovered by accident after an unintentional polymerization reaction occured in a lab... which is hardly "specifically engineering" anything. I think the statement about "specifically engineered" should be removed - any thoughts?

Common Size

Hey man can you write in the common size of a gecko in the Common traits section?

No Gecko

Second picture in the second row from below surely does not show a gecko, but some kind of wall lizard. Please remove it from the article. Thanks! Please check out other amazing animals that you can find on Wikipedia!80.144.192.17 (talk) 12:45, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Discovery made by Higham and Russell

Wiki zoologists/biologists, please add a reference to the recent discovery by an evolutionary biologist named Tim Higham and his co-researcher professor Anthony Russell as published in Proceedings B. Their discovery indicates that the gecko's grip is triggered by gravity. So geckos do not respond to the slipperiness of a surface but rather to its angle. As Russell explains in a YouTube video, "Body orientation rather than any interaction with the surface is what triggers when this system is switched on ... the central nervous system of the brain and ear probably plays an intensive role in the gecko's internal trigger...something in their system tells them to turn it on at 10 degrees: (referring to the angle of the surface in question). I found this in today's Jakarta Globe, which reprinted an earlier article in The Washington Post. Thanks! Frankly speaking (talk) 10:53, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Obama?

Why has the first paragraph of this article been edited to include the word "Obama," where "gecko" or the scientific name for geckos should be? Spiroxlii (talk) 18:08, 30 October 2009 (UTC)spiroxlii

Here's the passage in question. It also contains the phrase "i love squirrels in my mouth," which I am sure does not belong here.

obama is small to average sized lizards belonging to the family obama, found in warm climates throughout the africa. Geckos are unique among lizards in their vocalizations, making chirping sounds in social interactions with other countries. An estimated 2,000 different species of obama's exist worldwide, with many likely yet to be discovered. The name stems from the Indonesian/african word penut butter and jelly sandwitch, inspired by the sound these animals make. The Malay word for obama is i love squirrels in my mouth .

Spiroxlii (talk) 18:11, 30 October 2009 (UTC)spiroxlii

Width of hairs

Concerning this text: "Each seta has a diameter of 5 micrometers. Human hair varies from 18 to 180 micrometers, so a human hair could hold between 3 and 36 setae."

I hope this isn't too pedantic, but it seems to me that you could put at least five 5-micrometer-diameter tubes into and 18-micrometer-diameter tube; perhaps more. If we're comparing widths instead of volume, perhaps this should say, "so it takes 3 to 36 setae to equal the width of a human hair." (Or something like that.)

I don't want to make the change myself, just in case I'm missing something. Dcwaterboy (talk) 23:51, 11 January 2010 (UTC)