The Earliest Male Gecko: Carinasquama rusmithii

Publication Info:

Transcript:

J.D. Daza et al. 2026. Evidence of male anatomy in a mid-Cretaceous Burmese miniaturised amber gecko. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 145: 785-799; doi: 10.3897/sjp.145.188227

Meet Carinasquama rusmithii, or at least the mold of Carinasquama rusmithii that has preserved anatomical features never before seen on these geckos that lived alongside the dinosaurs.

Episode 315

Notes:

Who cares about finding dinosaur blood and amber when you can just find the actual cretaceous reptiles? So yeah, this is the second piece of amber news this week, but it's worth it. I mean, first of all, I have to mention that this is Burmese amber, which I'll never talk about without mentioning how insanely problematic a history and current state it has along with how it gets into the private market. And I'd highly suggest looking into it, especially if you are somebody who buys amber on the private market, you should know what you're supporting. That said, it is in museum collections and the cretaceous amber from Myanmar has led to some pretty incredible discoveries, including this gecko that paleontologists have been able to confirm is the oldest male gecko fossil ever discovered. This is Carinasquama rusmithii, a gecko that used to live in Myanmar's tropical forest 99 million years ago. This is in the cretaceous, the same time that there are dinosaurs pretty much everywhere. But Carinasquama is preserved in a kind of weird way if you're not really used to amber because it's basically a mold because the gecko itself is pretty much gone. It's just a mold with an outer layer that's such high detail that it's a hollow surrounded by scales, skin impressions, and an outline of its cloaca, which according to researchers has a pretty unmistakable hemipenial bulge, which is how they know it's a male. As usual, if you want more information, here's the source.