Gekko mizoramensis is a new species of parachute gecko. Photo: Special Arrangement
GUWAHATI A new-to-science lizard has actually parachuted into Mizoram.
A staff of biologists has recorded the Gekko mizoramensis as a new species of parachute gecko, so named due to pores and skin flaps alongside the physique and tail enabling it to glide.
The research on the lizard, with the widespread title Mizoram parachute gecko, has been printed within the newest version of Salamandra, the German Journal of Herpetology.
The authors of the research are Hmar Tlawmte Lalremsanga, Lal Muansanga, and Mathipi Vabeiryureilai of the Mizoram University’s Department of Zoology and Zeeshan A. Mirza of the Max Planck Institute for Biology primarily based in Tübingen, Germany.
Gekko mizoramensis have the flexibility to glide.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The genus Gekko comprises morphologically various lizards represented by 86 species distributed throughout South and Southeast Asia. The genus includes members of the subgenus Ptychozoon with variations corresponding to elaborate pores and skin flaps to facilitate gliding.
Members of Ptychozoon, generally often called parachute geckos, are nocturnal, arboreal geckos with a life-style that revolves round crypsis (the flexibility of an organism to hide itself from predators) and paragliding from one tree to a different.
Gekko mizoramensis have pores and skin flaps alongside the physique and tail.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
“The parachute gecko has been reported to be distributed across parts of Mizoram, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia. In 2001, one species of this group was recorded in India as Gekko lionotum from southern Mizoram,” Mr. Lalremsanga stated.
“Earlier studies included samples from most parts of the species’ range except for India, and the status of the Indian population remained unresolved. We conducted surveys in Mizoram and collected specimens, which allowed us to assess the systematic status of the Indian population,” he stated.
The new parachute gecko species, named after Mizoram, is most much like Gekko popaensis from which it differs genetically in having an uncorrected pairwise sequence divergence of 7-14% and by discrete variations in morphology and color sample, the research stated.
