Nocturnal species of bent-toed geckos
Delhi, Jan 31: From June 25th to August 5th , 2019, a group of herpetologists (scientists who study reptiles and amphibians) was on a field trip in Arunachal. During the Covid lockdown in 2020, the team took time to look at their research, compare notes, and correctly list everything that they had seen.
They realised that they have observed three new species of snakes. Yesterday, they shared their fouth discovery – a new species of geckos.
The new species has been named Cyrtodactylus arunachalensis, after the state in which it was discovered.
The discovery was published in a peer reviewed journal – Evolutionary Systematics.
The lizard is nocturnal (it comes out only at night) and is found in the Dafla and Mishmi hills of Arunachal Pradesh, at 179 to about 1400 meters above mean sea level. (This means that the species is not found in plains. It is only found at places that are at this altitude). The members of the team include Zeeshan A Mirza (National Center for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru), Faizan Ansari (Madras Crocodile Bank Trust), Harshal Bhosale and Mandar Sawant (Bombay Natural History Society), Pushkar Phansalkar (Pune), and Gaurang Gowande (Abasaheb Garware College, Pune).
