New Gecko Discovered
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 1st, 2008
Photograph of the new species, Hemidactylus aaronbaueri, Ashok Captain.
A new species of a rock-dwelling lizard has been discovered by the Bombay Natural History Society from Junnar taluka in Pune district, India.
The species belongs to genus Hemidactylus.
This distinctive gecko species is mostly found on the rock cliffs in the north western ghats, an official release from BNHS stated.
This new species was first photographed by Pune herpetologist Ashok Captain, who forwarded the same to Varad Giri, a scientist with the Bombay Natural History Society at Mumbai.
Giri worked on the photographs and subsequently Captain, Giri and fellow researcher Aparna Watwe from Pune conducted a search and reported more specimens from that region.
Giri later forwarded the details of the species to Aaron Bauer of USA’s Villanova University, who is an expert on lizards and an authority in this group.
Giri submitted his findings of the species to a scientific journal, Hamdryad and named this new species as Hemidactylus aaronbaueri, honoring Baeur, the release said.
In India, there are 21 species in this genus. This new lizard from Maharashtra is interestingly the largest species of Hemidactylus from India, the release added.
Source: The Hindu, Thursday, May 1, 2008.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
According to this site (http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/New-species-of-lizard-found-in-Pune/303995/):
The new species has leaf-shaped, bristle-like structures at the base of its foot which are well-developed, indicating that it can scale walls and ceilings easily, although the scientist said the new gecko was not a home-dwelling creature; they have so far studied more than 20 individual geckos of this species in the rocky cliffs.
It looks the same as any other Gecko in Texas…
The gecko in the picture probably is the same as the ones you see in Texas-it’s a Mediterranean Gecko, which can now be seen throughout the Gulf Coast region and much of the Southeast. I see (and hear) them every summer. The new species is a close relative of this species.
Cute little critter, regardless.
It is always good to find new species of ANYTHING.