Meet the Smooth knob-tailed gecko
Knob-tailed geckos are among the most distinctive lizards of Australia's deserts. The smooth knob-tail has a large head, big eyes, a plump pinkish to purplish-brown body and a short, flattened tail ending in a small round knob. The genus name Nephrurus means 'kidney tail', after the shape of that knob.
By day it shelters in burrows in the sand, which it may dig itself or take over from other animals, then hunts at night for spiders, insects, scorpions and even smaller geckos. When threatened it stands tall, sways its body and lunges with a loud bark.
It is called 'smooth' because its scales are smoother than those of its spiny knob-tailed relatives. Charles De Vis, then at the Queensland Museum, described it in 1886.
Like all Australian geckos it lays eggs, usually two per clutch. It has no eyelids and cleans the clear scale over its eyes with a lick of its tongue.
Where it lives
Arid and semi-arid inland Australia west of the Great Dividing Range, across Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Two subspecies occur on the WA central coast and in the Pilbara.