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A First Distribution Record of the Indian Peacock Softshell Turtle Nilssonia Hurum (Gray, 1830) (Reptilia: Testudines: Trionychidae) from Mizoram, India

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A First Distribution Record of the Indian Peacock Softshell Turtle Nilssonia Hurum (Gray, 1830) (Reptilia: Testudines: Trionychidae) from Mizoram, India PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Note A first distribution record of the Indian Peacock Softshell Turtle Nilssonia hurum (Gray, 1830) (Reptilia: Testudines: Trionychidae) from Mizoram, India Gospel Zothanmawia Hmar, Lalbiakzuala, Lalmuansanga, Dadina Zote, Vanlalhruaia, Hmar Betlu Ramengmawii, Kulendra Chandra Das & Hmar Tlawmte Lalremsanga 26 October 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 14 | Pages: 17036–17040 DOI: 10.11609/jot.6712.12.14.17036-17040 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October 2020 | 12(14): 17036–17040 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.6712.12.14.17036-17040 #6712 | Received 14 September 2020 | Final received 10 October 2020 | Finally accepted 12 October 2020 N o t e A frst distributon record of the Indian Peacock Sofshell Turtle Nilssonia hurum (Gray, 1830) (Reptlia: Testudines: Trionychidae) from Mizoram, India Gospel Zothanmawia Hmar 1 , Lalbiakzuala 2 , Lalmuansanga 3 , Dadina Zote 4 , Vanlalhruaia 5 , Hmar Betlu Ramengmawii 6 , Kulendra Chandra Das 7 & Hmar Tlawmte Lalremsanga 8 1,2,3,8 Department of Zoology, Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram 796004, India. 4 Radiology Department, Trinity Hospital (A unit of Zotres Hospital Pvt. Ltd.), Aizawl, Mizoram 796005, India. 5 Durtlang Mual Veng, Aizawl, Mizoram 796025, India, 6,7 Department of Environmental Science, Pachhunga University College, Aizawl, Mizoram 796001, India. 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected], 5 [email protected], 6 [email protected], 7 [email protected], 8 [email protected] (corresponding author) The trionychid turtle species compositon remains Pelochelys cantorii, and Lissemys punctata which poorly documented in Mizoram. So far, only three turtle comprises three subspecies—L. punctata punctata, species under this family have been reported by previous L. punctata andersonii, and L. punctata vitata (Das workers. Here, we report the occurrence of the Indian 1990, 1996; Bhupathy et al. 1992; Frazier & Das 1994; Peacock Sofshell Turtle Nilssonia hurum (Gray, 1830) Choudhury 1995; Data 1998; Sengupta et al. 2000; based on two individuals collected from Buhchangphai Pawar & Choudhury 2000; Praschag & Gemel 2002; and Serlui, Mizoram, India. Praschag et al. 2011). Till date, litle is known about the Chelonians are by far the most ancient quadruped distributon patern and the actual species compositon vertebrates on Earth and are widely distributed in India of trionychid turtles in Mizoram State, however, three (Das 1985, 1995, 2002). Having one of the most diverse distnct species are currently known to occur, namely, L. chelonian fauna in the world, India is currently inhabited punctata, P. cantorii (Mathew 2007), and A. cartlaginea by 30 species of freshwater turtles and tortoises and six (Pawar & Choudhury 2000; Hmar et al. 2020). marine turtles (Ahmed et al. 2009; Das & Gupta 2015) The conservaton status of N. hurum is presently including the recent record of Manouria impressa by listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List (Das et al. 2010), Mital et al. (2019). Eight species of turtles belonging to Appendix I in CITES, and is also categorized as Schedule the family Trionychidae (Reptlia: Chelonia) are known to I under Wildlife Protecton Act, 1972 in India (Das & occur in the country, viz., Nilssonia gangetca, N. hurum, Gupta 2011). In India, it was frst reported by Annandale N. leithii, N. nigricans, Chitra indica, Amyda cartlaginea, (1912a) from Puri, Orissa (Odhisha). It is commonly Editor: Raju Vyas, Vadodara, Gujarat, India. Date of publicaton: 26 October 2020 (online & print) Citaton: Hmar, G.Z., Lalbiakzuala, Lalmuansanga, D. Zote, Vanlalhruaia, H.B. Ramengmawii, K.C. Das & H.T. Lalremsanga (2020). A frst distributon record of the Indian Peacock Sofshell Turtle Nilssonia hurum (Gray, 1830) (Reptlia: Testudines: Trionychidae) from Mizoram, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(14): 17036–17040. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.6712.12.14.17036-17040 Copyright: © Hmar et al. 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: Natonal Mission for Himalayan Studies (NMHS), Utarakhand; Department of Biotechnology (DBT), New Delhi; DST-SERB (EMEQ). Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: We thank the Chief Wildlife Warden, Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of Mizoram for the permission of herpetofaunal collectons in Mizoram (Memo No: A. 33011/2/99–CWLW/225). We acknowledged the Natonal Mission for Himalayan Studies (NMHS), Utarakhand, DST-SERB (EMEQ) and Department of Biotechnology (DBT), New Delhi for fnancial assistance. We also appreciated Tlauliana and Lalmuanawma for their contributons in photographs and cooperaton in the feldworks. 17036 J TT Record of Indian Peacock Sofshell Turtle from Mizoram Hmar et al. known as the Indian Peacock Sofshell Turtle, widely 2018). Outside India, its distributon ranges include distributed in the northern and central parts of the eastern Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal (Mertens 1969; Indian sub-contnent; at tributaries of the rivers Indus, Das 1989; Mitchell & Rhodin 1996; Schleich & Kastle Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Subarnarekha (Smith 1931; 2002; Noureen et al. 2008). In this paper, we report two Moll & Vijaya 1986). It was also reported from isolated individuals, male and female of Nilssonia hurum from water bodies of Maharashtra (Varghese & Tonapi 1986), Kolasib District which represents the frst record for Madhya Pradesh (Das 1987), Rajasthan (Bhupathy & Mizoram State, northeastern India. Kumar 1988), Utar Pradesh (Pai & Basu 1988), and While surveying the chelonian diversity in diferent Manipur (Singh 1995). There are records of N. hurum drainages of Kolasib District (24°–24.25° N & 93.5°– from several protected areas in the country such as the 92.75° E), Mizoram, the frst individual of the adult Pakhui Wildlife Sanctuary (Arunachal Pradesh), Mupa- freshwater turtle was encountered and collected from Lanteng Reserve Forest (Assam), Bherihari Wildlife Serlui drainage (24.237°N and 92.745°E; 94m), near Sanctuary (Bihar), Hastnapur Wildlife Sanctuary and Builum Village at around 10.30h on 27 June 2020, (Image Sarnath Turtle Sanctuary (Utar Pradesh), Natonal 1). The specimen was found basking on a wooden log Chambal Sanctuary (Madhya Pradesh), Keoladeo on the bank of a small island in the Serlui B Dam. The Natonal Park (Rajasthan) (Rao 2001), Patbausai and collecton site is covered by a secondary forest type, Sundaridia (Assam) (Das & Saikia 2007), Kamakhya dominated by diferent species of trees like Gmelina (Assam) (Purkayastha et al. 2013), Kaziranga Natonal arborea, Tectona grandis, Ficus semicordata, Michelia Park (Assam) (Basumatary & Sharma 2013), and Van champaca, Bischofa javanica, and bamboo species like Vihar Natonal Park (Madhya Pradesh) (Manhas et al. Meloccanna baccifera and Dendrocalamus hamiltoni. Figure 1. The distributon of Nilssonia hurum in northeastern India (Previous records in solid dark circles; new records in solid red triangles, i.e., 1 – Buhchangphai and 2 – Serlui). Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October 2020 | 12(14): 17036–17040 17037 J TT Record of Indian Peacock Sofshell Turtle from Mizoram Hmar et al. A Image 1. A—a female Nilssonia hurum (© B Tlauliana) | B—collecton site at Serlui (© Lalmuanawma). The second individual was sighted on 23 July 2020 from a tulda. fsh pond (24.324°N & 92.657°E; 52m), near Chhimluang The two individuals were identfed as the Indian River, Buhchangphai Village located ca. 11km to the west Peacock Sofshell Turtle Nilssonia hurum based on from the frst collecton site (Image 2). It was found the identfcaton key provided by Annandale (1912b), burrowed in mud beneath the roots of F. semicordata Rashid & Swingland (1997), Praschag et al. (2007), and on the banks of a fsh pond at around 01.40h. The Das et al. (2010). According to
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