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GUWAHATI
Nagaland has yielded a new-to-science cascade-dwelling frog.
A squad of six scientists of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) recorded this taxon successful August 2024 from hill-stream habitats adjacent Singrep colony during a tract survey successful Kiphire district, bordering Myanmar. The taxon has been named Amolops kamal after Kamal Choudhury, who was the teacher of the probe paper’s pb writer astatine Guwahati’s B. Barooah College.
The communal sanction of this taxon is Nagaland cascade frog.
The authors of the survey are Bhaskar Saikia, Bikramjit Sinha, A. Shabnam, Prabir Narayan Konwar, Mridul Kumar Borthakur, and K.P. Dinesh. Their survey was published successful the latest contented of the journal Records of the Zoological Survey of India.
The researchers said integrative taxonomic analyses, including molecular phylogenetic studies, confirmed that the specimens correspond a chiseled evolutionary lineage wrong the Amolops indoburmanensis species complex.
ZSI Director Dhriti Banerjee said the documentation of Amolops kamal highlights the affluent yet understudied faunal diverseness of India’s northeastern portion and underscores the value of semipermanent tract surveys successful biodiversity hotspots.
Dr. Sinha of ZSI, Kolkata, who led the tract expedition, said the rugged landscapes and isolated watercourse ecosystems of the northeast proceed to harbour poorly known amphibian lineages.
Dr. Dinesh of ZSI, Pune, underscored the value of molecular approaches successful amphibian taxonomy, peculiarly successful the northeast, where galore frog taxon are morphologically similar. He said that molecular information are progressively indispensable for delineating taxon boundaries, knowing existent taxon distributions, and identifying cryptic taxon complexes that whitethorn different stay hidden nether a azygous taxon name.
The survey further demonstrated that Amolops indoburmanensis, antecedently considered a wide species, whitethorn correspond aggregate chiseled evolutionary lineages distributed crossed the northeast and neighbouring regions.
The Asian cascade-dwelling frog genus Amolops currently comprises 90 recognised species, with 20 taxon reported from India. These taxon are mostly classified into 10 taxon groups based connected morphological similarities.
In India, the Amolops species are chiefly categorised crossed 3 groups: Amolops marmoratus, Amolops monticola, and Amolops viridimaculatus. The archetypal radical is the astir diverse, represented by 8 species.
Amolops indoburmanensis was suspected to beryllium a hidden taxon analyzable wrong the Amolops marmoratus group.
