{"id":101911,"date":"2026-05-05T16:54:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T11:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=101911"},"modified":"2026-05-05T16:54:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T11:24:48","slug":"georissa-mawsmaiensis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/georissa-mawsmaiensis\/","title":{"rendered":"Georissa Mawsmaiensis, Micro Snail Species, Mawsmai Cave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Georissa Mawsmaiensis<\/strong> is a newly identified micro snail species discovered in <strong>Mawsmai<\/strong> <strong>Cave<\/strong> in Meghalaya after a gap of about 170 years since the last Georissa record in India in 1851. This finding highlights the rich but underexplored biodiversity of limestone cave ecosystems. The species belongs to a genus widely distributed across Africa, Asia and the Pacific region, typically confined to karst landscapes and limestone based habitats.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Georissa Mawsmaiensis<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Georissa Mawsmaiensis is a tiny cave dwelling snail with unique shell features discovered recently in Meghalaya\u2019s limestone cave ecosystem.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Discovery: It was discovered by researchers from <strong>ATREE<\/strong>, Bengaluru, marking the first Georissa discovery in India since 1851.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Size: This species measures less than 2 millimetres in length.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Morphological Features: It has four prominent spiral striations on shell whorls making it different from the Georissa sarrita which shows seven striations in apertural view.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Habitat: It inhabits moist limestone surfaces in caves, thriving in calcium rich environments.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Distribution: It belongs to the genus that is found across <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/tropical-forests\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>tropical forests<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/karst-landforms\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>karst regions<\/strong><\/a> globally.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Threats: Increasing tourism, artificial lighting and cemented cave pathways threaten its fragile microhabitat and other cave dependent fauna.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Mawsmai Cave<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mawsmai Cave is a limestone cave in Meghalaya known for biodiversity, fossils and unique geological formations formed by limestone dissolution processes. The term \u201cMawsmai\u201d means \u201cOath Stone,\u201d and locals call the cave \u201cKrem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Location: Located about 4 km from Cherrapunjee in East <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/khasi-hills\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Khasi Hills<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Physical Features: Situated at 1,195 metres altitude, the cave is influenced by streams of the Kynshi river and contains visible fossil formations on its walls.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biodiversity Importance: Around five cave snail species including Georissa Mawsmaiensis have been reported here. The region hosts nearly 1,700 identified caves while many are still unexplored scientifically.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Georissa mawsmaiensis, a new micro snail found in Meghalaya\u2019s Mawsmai Cave after 170 years, highlights rich cave biodiversity and conservation concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":101970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[7347,7348],"class_list":{"0":"post-101911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-studies","8":"tag-georissa-mawsmaiensis","9":"tag-invertebrate-zoology","10":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101911"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101953,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101911\/revisions\/101953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}