The Carphodactylidae, informally known as the southern padless geckos, are a family of geckos, lizards in the infraorder Gekkota. The family consists of 32 described species in 7 genera, all of which are endemic to Australia. They belong to the superfamily Pygopodoidea (or Diplodactyloidea), an ancient group of east Gondwanan geckos now only found in Australasia. Despite their well-developed limbs, molecular phylogenies have demonstrated that Carphodactylidae is the sister group to Pygopodidae, a highly specialized family of legless lizards. Carphodactylids, despite being the most species-poor family of geckos, are still diverse in habits. Many have unusual, specialized tails with reduced rates of autotomy. They lack adhesive toepads and instead cling to bark or substrate with sharply curved claws and a limited array of lamellae. Carphodactylids are relatively large by gecko standards; most are nocturnal and all are oviparous, with a typical clutch size of two eggs. Unlike most Australian geckos, species diversity is concentrated in humid forests along the northeastern edge of Australia. Nevertheless, some genera are diverse in arid regions as well. Genera The following genera are considered members of the Carphodactylidae: Classification Historical usage (Carphodactylini) Members of the family now known as Carphodactylidae were first grouped together in Kluge (1967)’s reconfiguration of gecko systematics. He named a tribe, Carphodactylini, which included Carphodactylus, Nephrurus, and Phyllurus ("padless carphodactylins") as close relatives in a subgroup. The tribe also included Pseudothecadactylus and all New Zealand and New Caledonian geckos ("padded carphodactylins") in another subgroup. Carphodactylini was diagnosed by a large patch of preanal pores formed by multiple rows, though these pores were noted as vestigial in Nephrurus and absent in Phyllurus. Under Kluge’s classification scheme, Carphodactylini was the sister group to Diplodactylini, which contained other Australian legged geckos. Both tribes formed the subfamily Diplodactylinae within the family Pygopodidae, alongside the legless lizards of the subfamily Pygopodinae. "Padless carphodactylins" (particularly Carphodactylus) were considered the most primitive and generalized members of Carphodactylini, and by extension Diplodactylinae. A morphological phylogenetic analysis by Bauer (1990) generally supported Kluge’s classification scheme, though the ingroup relations of carphodactylins was very different. Summary of Kluge's classification scheme: Results of Bauer, 1990: However, the monophyly and structure of Carphodactylini (as defined by morphological traits) started to become unclear once molecular phylogenies were developed. King (1987) found that Nephrurus and Phyllurus apparently retained an ancestral chromosome structure, but that Carphodactylus, "padded carphodactylins", and several species of Oedura (a supposed diplodactylin)