Three new species of legless amphibians have been found from forests in Manipur and Nagaland by researchers
Dimapur | October 26 : In a remarkable discovery, three new species of legless amphibians have been found from forests in Manipur and Nagaland by researchers that include a young Naga scientist Rachunliu G Kamei from Kohima, Nagaland. She is an assistant professor in St. Stephens’ college, Delhi and she is also pursuing her PhD from University of Delhi.
According to information received by The Morung Express the discovery was led by Delhi University Associate Professor SD Biju. Rachunliu is Dr Biju’s Ph.D student and the former spearheaded the research article. The research team had two collaborators from the Natural History Museum, London — David Gower and Mark Wilkinson.
The team’s find, published in the latest issue of Zootaxa (an international journal of zoological taxonomy), is unique as two of the new species have moustache-like stripes on the upper lip not found in caecilians reported from any part of the world before, a press release said on Monday.
Worldwide, more than 170 species of caecilians (which are one among the three orders of amphibians known as Gymnophiona) have been reported so far. In northeast India, only four of these species were known to exist. The new find takes the number of known legless amphibians in this region to seven.
The latest discovery is expected to help in both preserving the species and also create materials for better understanding of this rare group of species in the Northeast. It is also the first time a caecilian is documented from Manipur and Nagaland. Studying caecilians is a challenge for scientists as locating this group of animals is extremely difficult simply because they usually live under the soil.
Rachunliu G Kamei
According to information received by The Morung Express the discovery was led by Delhi University Associate Professor SD Biju. Rachunliu is Dr Biju’s Ph.D student and the former spearheaded the research article. The research team had two collaborators from the Natural History Museum, London — David Gower and Mark Wilkinson.
The team’s find, published in the latest issue of Zootaxa (an international journal of zoological taxonomy), is unique as two of the new species have moustache-like stripes on the upper lip not found in caecilians reported from any part of the world before, a press release said on Monday.
Worldwide, more than 170 species of caecilians (which are one among the three orders of amphibians known as Gymnophiona) have been reported so far. In northeast India, only four of these species were known to exist. The new find takes the number of known legless amphibians in this region to seven.
The latest discovery is expected to help in both preserving the species and also create materials for better understanding of this rare group of species in the Northeast. It is also the first time a caecilian is documented from Manipur and Nagaland. Studying caecilians is a challenge for scientists as locating this group of animals is extremely difficult simply because they usually live under the soil.
Rachunliu G Kamei
And according to the researchers, caecilians can be found only by digging up the soil. Further there is no indicator that helps predict where caecilians can be found.
According to the research team who made the discovery, the latest find was another indication of the yet-to-be fully understood biodiversity of the country. The team named one of the three species Ichthyophis moustakius, meaning an Ichthyophis with moustache. The northeast is at the junction of the Indo- Myanmar-Himalaya global biodiversity hotspot.
However, according to the researchers, the biodiversity of this region is dwindling rapidly due to human intervention. All the three species came from an area where forests were being converted into agricultural land, it was informed. Expressing concern on the fast depleting forests in the region, the researchers caution that this could wipe out several species. They have urged that immediate steps need to be taken in order to protect the remaining forests from human activities like Jhum cultivation.
Interestingly, apart from habitat destruction, local myth has also contributed to depletion of such species like caecilian because local communities believe that they are extremely venomous snaked. According to the researchers, actually caecilians are neither venomous nor are they snakes. They never bite and they open their mouth only for feeding, it was informed.
The discovery has already been published in all the national leading news papers and international and national leading journals. According to an observer here in Nagaland the real message is not so much the popularity of the discovery but the biodiversity depletion and the colossal loss of such diversity before they can even be documented. In fact this group of animal has never been reported before from Nagaland or Manipur so it is a first for the two states as well.
According to the research team who made the discovery, the latest find was another indication of the yet-to-be fully understood biodiversity of the country. The team named one of the three species Ichthyophis moustakius, meaning an Ichthyophis with moustache. The northeast is at the junction of the Indo- Myanmar-Himalaya global biodiversity hotspot.
However, according to the researchers, the biodiversity of this region is dwindling rapidly due to human intervention. All the three species came from an area where forests were being converted into agricultural land, it was informed. Expressing concern on the fast depleting forests in the region, the researchers caution that this could wipe out several species. They have urged that immediate steps need to be taken in order to protect the remaining forests from human activities like Jhum cultivation.
Interestingly, apart from habitat destruction, local myth has also contributed to depletion of such species like caecilian because local communities believe that they are extremely venomous snaked. According to the researchers, actually caecilians are neither venomous nor are they snakes. They never bite and they open their mouth only for feeding, it was informed.
The discovery has already been published in all the national leading news papers and international and national leading journals. According to an observer here in Nagaland the real message is not so much the popularity of the discovery but the biodiversity depletion and the colossal loss of such diversity before they can even be documented. In fact this group of animal has never been reported before from Nagaland or Manipur so it is a first for the two states as well.