According to the authors of the study, who publish their work in the journal Zootaxa, all geckos are less than 7-8 centimeters long.
Madagascar, that treasure of biodiversity
For the last several decades, researchers had studied the small geckos of the Domerguella subgenus and five separate species were believed to exist. However, DNA analysis has revealed that there could be as many as 17 new species.
The Madagascar area is well known for its species diversity and endemism. Not surprisingly, more than 150 new species of reptiles have been described in the last 30 years. However, the researchers were surprised by how many different species they had inadvertently been studying.
“These results highlight how important it is that we continue to collect samples in Madagascar, even from species that we think we understand. There is still much more to discover,” said Frank Glaw , Curator of Herpetology at the Zoologische Staatssammlung München in Munich, Germany.
New and varied species
These candidate species are relatively evenly distributed across all major groups of Madagascar reptiles . A group of Malagasy reptiles with a disproportionately high number of candidate species is the genus Lygodactylus ; Dwarf day geckos with over 70 species currently described from Africa, Madagascar, and parts of South America.
The newly identified species are Lygodactylus tantsaha, Lygodactylus salvi, Lygodactylus roellae, Lygodactylus hapei, Lygodactylus winki, Lygodactylus ulli, Lygodactylus fritzi, and Lygodactylus hodikazo.
Unfortunately, like many species found in Madagascar, these little reptiles are in danger of extinction.
“The five species we knew about before were thought not to be threatened, but the eight new species are probably endangered or critically endangered. This shows how important it is to continue working to discover, describe and assess the conservation status of Madagascar’s wildlife”, concludes Fanomezana Ratsoavina, director of the Animal Zoology and Biodiversity Unit at the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar.
Reference: MIGUEL VENCES et al, Integrative revision of the Lygodactylus madagascariensis group reveals an unexpected diversity of little brown geckos in Madagascar’s rainforest, Zootaxa (2022). DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5179.1.1
