Ahmedabad: Much to the delight of biologists from across the globe, a new freshwater shrimp species of genus Caridina has been discovered by researchers from Gujarat’s Kutch district, and scientists have named it 'Caridina Kutchi', after the region itself.
“The new species has been found from Khari River of semi-arid region of Kutch peninsula in Gujarat and is identified to be new to the science. We have named the new species as Caridina Kutchi,” says professor Pranav Pandya, who works in the field of marine biology and has co-authored the paper on the discovery.
The paper on this discovery has been authored by Pandya and Dr Jasmine Richard of Invertebrates Division, Department of Life Sciences, the Natural History Museum, London, England. It was recently published in the international scientific journal, Zootaxa.
“Caridina Kutchi species is the first Caridina species to be described from Kutch, which is known for its complex geological set up. The species belongs to genus Caridina which are seen in aquatic water bodies and are very less studied in the western India,” professor Pandya told News18.
“This species serves as ecological filters of water bodies. We were working on this species since a year because of some of its distinct features. As it was a different species, we worked on it. Dr. Jasmine Richard, the co-author of the paper on this species, helped a lot and validated it to be a new species,’’ Pandya said about the discovery.
“We have been working on the species since a year and once it was established that this was a new discovery, we decided to name it after the Kutch region, an ecologically diverse area,” said Pandya.
Pandya is presently working on a research project sanctioned by the Government of India on the intertidal animals of Gulf of Kutch. “This discovery will help encourage scientists to work on this species’ status and distribution in India,’’ he said.
Comments
0 comment