New lizard species named as Cyrtodactylus Varadgirii discovered in Mumbai
A new species of a ground-dwelling lizard has been discovered in Goregaon’s Aarey Colony and Thane’s Badlapur forested belts in Maharashtra.
It has been named as Cyrtodactylus Varadgirii or Giri’s Geckoella after a Bengaluru-based scientist Varad Giri. It was discovered 130 years after the last such gecko was discovered.
Key Facts
- Cyrtodactylus Varadgirii or Giri’s Geckoella belongs to the genus Cyrtodactylus known in Southeast Asia, India and Sri Lanka.
- It is a member of the subgenus Geckoella, which are small ground-dwelling geckos largely found in leaf litter in forests.
- Earlier, this new species was considered as Geckoella Collegalensis, but based on morphological characters and DNA data it was described as a new species.
- This new species is active during night and take refuge under rocks and logs during the day. It is mostly seen moving among the leaf litter on the forest floor.
- It grows the length of around 6 centimetres. It is also known to live around human-dominated landscapes.
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Month: Current Affairs - September, 2016