I posted a while ago about Kenyan dwarf geckos (Lygodactylus keniensis) that thrive in acacia trees, but have you ever seen a baby one? This hatchling gecko is probably the tiniest lizard I’ve ever seen in my life. With toepads tens of thousands of times smaller than the tip of my ring finger, it’s a daunting world out there of gnarly arthropods and gargantuan avian and reptilian predators. To think that all of the internal anatomy of a vertebrate organism — nervous, circulatory systems, etc. — resides in this minuscule body is astounding to me. Oh! and in Swahili, baby translates to “mtoto.” Probably my favorite word so far.
Photographed after capture [5]
