AN ACCOUNT OF NEWLY DISCOVERED FISHES FROM THE INDIAN REGION DURING 2015-2016

Abstract

Explorations are conducted by the researchers to identify and document the flora and fauna found in different geographic locations of the world. In this process, several new species are discovered every year by the researcher, which are phenotypically and/or genotypically different from other species of their cogners. During 2015-16, fifty-seven new species were discovered from the different parts of the country India out of which, 35 new fish species were recorded during the year 2015 and 22 new species during the year 2016. Most of the new discoveries were from the two biodiversity hotspot areas, North-eastern region and Western Ghats. Family Cyprinidae dominates with 21 new species followed by Badidae with 8 species and Sisoridae with 7 species. These discoveries were mainly from the freshwater (48 species) and marine water (9 species). The collected data was analysed to indicate area-wise species richness. It is evident that about 10 percent of global fish diversity is reported from Indian region, which shows high richness in fish resources and further documentation of newly discovered fishes will strengthen the process of maintaining the register of living fish resources of India.