Meet &Beyond’s New Namesake

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Back in 2006, Miles Paul, one of the regular resident astronomers at &Beyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge made a rare and important discovery. He spotted and photographed a tiny, but handsome gecko that he didn’t recognise. Neither Miles, the lodge guides, nor then lodge manager Pete Dunning were able to find a clear match in the reptile books, so Pete called in the help of Professor Bill Branch, renowned reptile taxonomist and Curator of Herpetology at Bayworld in Port Elisabeth.

Bill visited the lodge and confirmed that it was in fact a new species of gecko. And now, five years (and plenty of paperwork) later, this exciting discovery has been officially published in the Harvard Journal and our special gecko has a name: Pachydactylus etultra — ‘et’ meaning ‘and’; ‘ultra’ meaning ‘beyond’!! These miniature rock-dwelling creatures live in rock piles or among small boulders, and are very difficult to find. So, kudos to Miles for his keen eye and well-earned discovery, and sincere thanks to Bill for his enthusiasm, perseverance and most of all, for helping this gecko to become our namesake. We couldn’t be more proud!

Photo courtesy and copyright of Bill Branch