Researchers discover 12 new species of geckos in Western Ghats

A team of researchers that discovered 123 new species of geckos from the Western Ghats has published a paper about their findings in a reputed international journal.

The group associated with Mumbai-based Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and two Bengaluru-based organisations — Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) and National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) — had published the findings in the current issue of the international journal Zoological Research.

The paper authored by Saunak Pal, currently associated with the BNHS, Zeeshan A. Mirza of NCBS, Princia Dsouza and Kartik Shanker of CES brings to light several important aspects, including the importance of Western Ghats.

Commonly known as ‘dwarf geckos’ or even ‘day geckos’, geckos belonging to the genus ‘Cnemaspis’ are known to be distributed in Africa, Indo-Sri Lanka and southeast Asia.

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These geckos can be identified by their rounded pupil unlike the vertical pupil seen in most other geckos.

In India, these geckos are distributed in the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats, a single species in Northeast India and also in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

With over 30 known species, these geckos are the most diverse group of lizards in the Western Ghats and many are endemic to this region.

In spite of this, there is a dearth of data about these particular geckos. In their paper, the authors describe an additional 12 species from the Western Ghats, and also redescribe 10 known species.

This study was carried out as part of a larger survey of frogs, lizards and snakes of the Western Ghats, supported by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund between 2009 and 2014.

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The project was aimed to map the diversity and distribution of these groups in the Ghats, discover species, document diversity and use this information towards conservation prioritisation.

Pal carried out extensive field visits across the Western Ghats to collect morphological data, distribution information, specimens and tissue samples to understand the diversity and distribution of these geckos. He compared the newly collected species with those at the museums of BNHS and Zoological Survey of India (ZSI, Kolkata) and conducted phylogenetic studies to understand the relationship between the species.

Dsouza generated molecular data essential for phylogenetic analysis for the specimens collected.

Zeeshan examined type specimens of known species in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London and examined the osteology of Indian species. He also conducted fieldwork in parts of the Ghats between 2012 and 2014 and contributed molecular data for the paper.

“Based on the results of their study, the team were able to identify multiple new species from different hills in the Western Ghats and also rediscovered populations of some species which had been found over 100 years ago and not reported since then. The researchers were surprised to find that 10 of these 12 newly found species are restricted to the forests of the Southern Western Ghats. In the paper they provide description of 12 new species along with the redescription of several species that were known to science from a few specimens or imprecise localities,” a statement by the researchers said.

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