For the last 70 years, it did not get its rightful place in the classication scheme. But the Dutta’s Mahendragiri gecko has come into its own now, and is the latest addition to the species list of the Eastern Ghats.
Discovered from Andhra Pradesh’s Mahendragiri hills, it is the second gecko to be found endemic to the area.
The discovery highlights the biodiversity importance of the region, say scientists. Genetics help Genetic analysis, which involves scrutiny of an organism’s DNA, helped scientists from institutes including the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and Zoological Survey of India discover that the Dutta’s Mahendragiri geckos were not a population of Spotted rock geckos (found in the northern Western Ghats in Maharashtra) as it was believed.
“DNA sequence data showed that these two geographically separated populations are different and a careful examination of their characteristics showed that the new species has many unique, diagnostic characters,” says Varad Giri (NCBS), lead author of the six year long study published in the journal Zootaxa.
Dutta’s Mahendragiri gecko has golden eyes and pale, black bordered horizontal bands. Christened Hemidactylus sushil duttai in honour of herpetologist Sushil Kumar Dutta, the lizard is the 32nd species of Hemidactylus gecko found in India.
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