Herein, two nanoparticles with different dimensions, spherical carbon dots (C-dots) and sheet-like hectorite clay, were used as physical crosslinkers to fabricate C-dots-clay-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) nanocomposite hydrogels (coded as C-dots-clay-PNIPAm hydrogels). The mechanical properties, fluorescence features and thermal-responsive properties of the C-dots-clay-PNIPAm hydrogels were evaluated. The experimental results indicate that synergistic effects of C-dots and hectorite clay nanoparticles are able to significantly enhance mechanical properties of the hydrogels. The hydrogels can be stretched up to 1730％ with strength as high as 250 kPa when the C-dots concentration is 0.1wt％ and the clay concentration is 6wt％. The hydrogels exhibit complete self-healing through autonomic reconstruction of crosslinked network a damaged interface. The hydrogels show favorable thermal-responsive properties with the volume phase transition around 34 ℃. In addition, the hydrogels are endowed with fluorescence features that are associated with C-dots in the hydrogels. It can be expected that the as-fabricated C-dots-clay-PNIPAm hydrogels are promising for applications in sensors, biomedical carriers and tissue engineering.