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New Legless Amphibian Species Found in Maharashtra’s Western Ghats
Scientists found a new kind of small amphibian living underground in Maharashtra.
It has no legs and belongs to a group called caecilians.
Caecilians can look like earthworms or blind snakes.
The new species was named Gegeneophis chandgadi after a local Marathi dialect.
People living in the area helped researchers find the hidden animals.
The animals were discovered in farms and residential areas, not only in forests.
Scientists used body measurements and DNA-related evidence to confirm that it was a separate species.
The discovery shows that important wildlife may be living under places where people work and live.
Scientists have identified a new subterranean, legless amphibian in Buzawade, Chandgad, in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district.
The species, named Gegeneophis chandgadi, honours the Chandgadi Marathi dialect and local ecological knowledge.
Researchers confirmed it as distinct using molecular data and detailed morphological and meristic analyses.
The caecilians were found in residential and agricultural landscapes rather than exclusively in protected forests.
The discovery raises India’s recorded Gegeneophis species to 12 and highlights the need for further subterranean biodiversity surveys.
- Who
- A multi-institutional team including researchers from the Zoological Survey of India, WRC Pune, Yashwantrao Chavan Mahavidyalaya, Savitribai Phule Pune University and the Mhadei Research Centre, Goa.
- What
- Scientists discovered and formally described a new subterranean caecilian species named Gegeneophis chandgadi.
- Where
- Buzawade in Chandgad, Kolhapur district, within Maharashtra’s Northern Western Ghats.
- When
- The discovery was announced on Saturday; the formal findings were published in the Records of the Zoological Survey of India.
- Why
- To document previously unrecognized biodiversity and improve understanding of subterranean ecosystems in the Western Ghats.
Key facts
- Species
- Gegeneophis chandgadi
- Animal group
- Caecilians, or subterranean limbless amphibians
- Discovery location
- Buzawade, Chandgad, Kolhapur district, Maharashtra
- Research evidence
- Molecular data plus morphological and meristic analyses
- India’s amphibian total
- 458 recorded species, including 41 caecilian species
- Gegeneophis species in India
- 12 after this discovery, with 11 endemic to the Western Ghats
- Conservation context
- Researchers cited an estimate that about 41% of global amphibian species face extinction threats
Quotes
Researchers
Scientists discussing species disappearing before they are formally identified
“silent extinctions”
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