In an interesting development for the rich wildlife of the Northeast, a team of scientists has discovered six new species of lizards, kinds of bent-toed geckos from different parts of the region.
These bent-toed geckos of the genus Cyrtodactylus are the most species-rich genus of geckos globally with over 250 species, according to report in Zootaxa.
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The description of these six newly discovered species has been published recently in the peer reviewed taxonomic mega-journal, Zootaxa, published from New Zealand.
The report by the spokesperson of the team Ishan Agarwal and comprising Varad B Giri, R Chaitanya, Stephen Mahony of Natural History Museum, London and global authority on geckos, and Aaron Bauer of Villanova University, United States stated that the new Indian species have been named after the Assam capital, Guwahati, as Cyrtodactylus Guwahatiensis, or the Guwahati bent-toed gecko, making it the fifth lizard to be described from a major Indian city, the others being Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai.
Another one is named after Nagaland as Cyrtodactylus Nagalandensis, while another has been named as Cyrtodactylus Kazirangaensis after the famed Kaziranga National Park, and the largest bent-toed gecko is named as Cyrtodactylus Jaintiaensis after the Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, the report further added.
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The other two are Cyrtodactylus Montanus after the Jampui Hills of Tripura and another one named Cyrtodactylus Septentrionalis of the Abhayapuri bent-toed gecko.