The zoology department of Osmania University discovered three new lizard species endemics to the plateaus of Telangana and Karnataka.
The university made the announcement on Wednesday that its scientist – Dr C Srinivasulu led the team of two researchers – G Chethan Kumar and Aditya Srinivasulu in making the discovery which was published in a research paper in Zootaxa – a world-renowned journal dedicated to animal taxonomy.
These discovered species are named as
- Deccan Giant Leaf-toed Gecko Hemidactylus raya from Hampi in Bellary district of Karnataka,
- Saxatile Leaf-toed Gecko Hemidactylus saxicolous from Raichur Fort, Raichur district of Karnataka,
- Emulous Leaf-toed Gecko Hemidactylus aemulus from Chandanapalli near Panagal, Nalgonda district, Telangana.
The zoologists in the university explained that these three new species were earlier considered as Indian Giant Leaf-toed Gecko, which was identified by WT Blanford in 1872 but careful studies on various body characters and phylogenetics these species were found to be distinct.
“This is a classic case of cryptic diversity in known species, the subtle morphological difference that goes unnoticed by zoologists is the reason why such diversity goes unnoticed. I had been doubting that there are cryptic diversity among the Giant Leaf-toed Gecko” C Srinivasulu said.
Courtesy : Times of India