''Cyrtodactylus jeyporensis'', also known as the Jeypore Indian gecko, the Jeypore ground gecko, or the Patinghe Indian gecko, is an endangered species of

gecko Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from . Geckos ar ...

found in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, which was until recently considered

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

. Described from a single specimen in 1877, it was rediscovered in 2010 in the

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and cut ...

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

state,

Discovery and rediscovery

The

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

was described in 1877 by then Lt Col Richard Henry Beddome of the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

Army, from a single male specimen obtained from the woods on "Patinghe hill" in the Jeypore forests of present-day

, at an altitude of . The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

is deposited as BNHM 82.5.22.37 in the Natural History Museum (earlier British Museum of natural history). In 2009, Ishan Aggarwal, a doctoral student at the Centre for Ecological Sciences,

Indian Institute of Sciences The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute wa ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

, started working on the genus '' Geckoella''. He hoped to rediscover this "lost" species as it would help piece together the evolutionary history of the genus. The search began with piecing together the route of Beddome's explorations in the Eastern Ghats. After many months of research, the CES and the

Bombay Natural History Society The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publi ...

(BNHS) put together expeditions in high elevation areas of the Eastern Ghats in southern Odisha in September 2010 and northern Andhra Pradesh in November 2011. A sub-adult male lizard was collected on 20 September 2010 in Koraput district,

, by Ishan Agarwal and Aniruddha Datta-Roy of CES which was deposited in the collection of the BNHS. A second specimen, an adult male, was recorded on 9 October 2011 from Galikonda,

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura (S20), INS ...

district,

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

extending its known distribution range.

Description

Description of type, male specimen, collected in Jeypore by Beddome in 1877: Measurements : * Total length : * Head : * Width of body : * Body : * Forelimb : * Hindlimb : * Tail :

Distribution

The lizard appears to inhabit semi-evergreen forests in high elevation areas (> ) of the

of southern

and northern

. However, the areas where the lizard has been found are under tremendous pressure from deforestation and mining. The taxon is surmised to possibly be a wet-zone relict stranded by the aridification of peninsular India.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3006675 Cyrtodactylus Endemic fauna of India Reptiles of India Lizards of Asia Reptiles described in 1877 Critically endangered fauna of Asia Taxa named by Richard Henry Beddome