
Ecologists have 596 reasons to cheer
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- Scientists and taxonomists have documented 596 new species of flora and fauna from India in the year 2018.
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- About the discoveries:(1) Of the 596 species, 372 come under fauna (311 invertebrates and 61 vertebrates).(2) The newly identified 224 plant species include seed plants, pteridophytes, bryophytes, fungi and lichen.(3) About 31% of the plant species were discovered in the Himalayas.(4) In the case of animals, the Western Ghats remained a biological hotspot from where about 50% of the species were found.
- Plant discoveries:(1) The plants discovered this year includes close wild relatives of many potential horticulture, agriculture, medicinal and ornamental plants.(2) Plants belonging to groups Amomum (wild cardamom).(3) Cycads.(4) Rubus (raspberry).(5) Syzygium (wild jamun).(6) Terminalia.(7) Balsams.(8) Zingibers.
- Animal discoveries:(1) Of the 61 species of vertebrates discovered this year, reptiles dominate (30 species).(2) 21 species of fishes, nine species of amphibians, and one mammalian sub-species were also found.(3) Kerala recorded the highest number of discoveries with 59 species.(4) West Bengal, a state with both Himalayan and coastal ecosystems, recorded 38 and Tamil Nadu recorded 26.
- Number of species:(1) With these new discoveries, the updated list of animal species in India has risen to 1,01,681 which is about 6.49% of all the species in the world.(2) Number of plant species in the country has been updated to 49,441 which is 11.5% of all flora in the world.
Source
The hindu