According to the research paper published in the latest edition of Zootaxa, researchers have discovered a new species of lizard – the urban bent-toed gecko in Guwahati, Assam. The study was co-authored by Jayaditya Purkayastha and Madhurima Das, Sanath Chandra Bohra, Mumbai-based Ishan Agarwal and Aaron M. Bauer, a global authority on geckos based in Pennsylvania, U.S.
Facts
- The zoological name of the news species is Cyrtodactylus urbanus.
- The new species s markedly different in molecular structure, blotch and colour from the Cyrtodactylus guwahatiensis, or the Guwahati bent-toed gecko, that was discovered two years ago.
- All bent-toed geckos in Northeast India were thought to be a single species, the Cyrtodactylus khasiensis found primarily in the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya.
- The urban bent-toed gecko falls within the khasiensis group, however it differs from other members of this group in mitochondrial sequence data as well as aspects of morphology such as the number and arrangement of certain pores in males, the number of mid-ventral scales and colour pattern.
- The study on the urban bent-toed gecko also provided additional information on the Guwahati bent-toed gecko, the first of the two Cyrtodactylus endemic to the areas covered by the city and the fourth from Assam.
- It was also the 12th recorded gecko from the Northeast.
Guwahati and Biodiversity
- Guwahati is home to 26 species of amphibians, 57 species of reptiles, 214 species of birds and 36 species of mammals.
- Guwahati encompasses 18 hills, eight reserve forests, two wildlife sanctuaries and a Ramsar site (wetland) besides the Brahmaputra river.
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