The team included Akshay Khandekar, Tejas Thackeray and Ishan Agarwal made the discovery.
A team of three researchers including Tejas Thackeray- the youngest son of Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray who is known for his keen interest in wildlife have discovered and described two new dwarf geckos from the ecologically rich Sahyadris of Maharashtra.
Interestingly the gecko’s have been named Cnemaspis koynaensis (Koyna dwarfs gecko) and Cnemaspis amba (Amba dwarf gecko) not only as they are endemic to Koyna in Satara and Amba Ghat in Kolhapur respectively, but also more importantly to highlight these two areas, which have amazingly diverse yet fragile ecosystem.
The findings by the team that included Akshay Khandekar, Tejas Thackeray and Ishan Agarwal was published on Tuesday in Zootaxa- a globally renowned peer reviewed journal.
“We began our field work in Western Ghats of Maharashtra since June 2018 and were interested in dwarf geckos and hence carried out collection of samples from different areas in the State, which are part of the Western Ghats,” said Khandekar a herpatologist and researcher from from National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) Bengaluru.
He added that it was after carrying out DNA sequencing they found that that the geckos from Amba and Koyna were different not only genetically but also in morphology.
“Both the geckos are diurnal (active in the day) and semi-terrestrial- found on boulders and rocks as well as trees. These two species are morphologically distinct from each other too. While the Koyna dwarfs gecko has spine like scales on its flanks ,which is lacking in Amba dwarf gecko,” informed Khandekar adding that a lot more study is required to be carried out both in Koyna and Amba areas as both places are biodiversity hotspot.
Taxonomist and researcher Dr Varad Giri heaping praises on the trio said that all the three- Akshay, Tejas as well as Ishan were extremely dedicated and sincere about their work and research.
“I feel delighted that they are working as a team as each one of them has their own strength and hence today they are widely regarded by all in the field of herpetology in India. I am sure that in times to come they will have several discoveries to their names as they are working with focus and not going about it randomly,”he said.
Meanwhile announcing the species on social media, tejas Thackeray stated that the paper has been published at the time when both Kolhapur and Satara along with Sangli as well as many other districts have been hit by torrential downpours causing floods, which Maharashtra has never seen before.
“Praying for all those who are still seeking help May life return to normalcy soon and people of paschim Maharashtra and Konkan be safe,” he mentioned.
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 "Two new dwarf geckos")
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