Newly Discovered Gecko Named After Mumbai Scientist

Newly Discovered Gecko Named After Mumbai Scientist

A new species of gecko discovered just last year in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra has been named after a Mumbai scientist. First located near the famous Kaas plateau or the Valley of Flowers, the gecko was discovered by a team of young scientists. The discovery was published in an international journal.

The lizard in question belongs to the genus Cnemaspis. It is also known as the dwarf gecko and it was first discovered in the month of January in 2013 in the lateritic plateaus of this state. The distinctive feature of these geckos of the genus Cnemaspis is that they have a rounded pupil in their eyes, according to BNHS senior scientist Varad B.Giri.

The 4 scientists from the Bangalore Nation Center for Biological Sciences and Center for Ecological Sciences namely Zeeshan Mirza, Saunak Pal, Rajesh Sanap is from Mumbai while Harshal Bhosale is from Satara. All 4 scientists were guided by Giri.

The 4 scientists decided to name the gecko after their “guru” as Cnemaspis Girii for the senior scientist's immense contribution to Indian herpetology. This is the second species to be named after the scientist. Int he year 2012, a species of snakes discovered by him in the same region was named as
Dendrelathis Girii.

C. Girii is found in the dense evergreen forests across the rivulets and streams of the Kaas plateau. This is famously known as the Valley of Flowers in Satara district. This is part of the 1,600 km long Western Ghats which stretches across the 5 states from Kerala to Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

First noticed in 2010, the C. Girii differs from the two species of the genus Cnemaspis known in south Maharashtra, according to Mirza. Both Mirza and Sanap visited the London Natural History Museum to examine the species of related geckos obtained from India.

The team also carried out further research and field studies to find that the species was located around the forest stream alone and not the plateau. This makes it very important from the viewpoint of conservation.

The plateaus support a high degree of endemic fauna that is yet to be documented, according to Sanap. The scientists have called for the need for dedicated surveys along the north Western Ghats to document the diverse range of reptiles as narrowly distributed species can fall prey to anthropogenic pressures. The discovery of this new species was published in the journal Zootaxa.