{"id":106299,"date":"2026-06-02T13:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T07:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=106299"},"modified":"2026-06-02T13:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T07:46:11","slug":"mesalina-bishnoi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/mesalina-bishnoi\/","title":{"rendered":"Mesalina bishnoi"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Mesalina bishnoi Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A new species of lizard, Mesalina Bishnoi, has been recently discovered in Rajasthan.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Mesalina bishnoi<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>new species of lizard.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has been discovered near Gajner in Bikaner district, <\/span><b>Rajasthan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The species was found in an <\/span><b>arid landscape<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> consisting of hard, rocky soil with sparse desert vegetation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It marks the <\/span><b>first confirmed record of the genus Mesalina in India.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> genus Mesalina<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> comprises <\/span><b>small, fast-moving, diurnal lizards<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> adapted to <\/span><b>arid and semi-arid landscapes.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although a historical reference by British zoologist Malcolm A Smith in 1935 mentioned the presence of Mesalina watsonana in Jaisalmer, no specimen-based evidence existed to confirm the genus\u2019s occurrence in India.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mesalina bishnoi is named in <\/span><b>recognition of the Bishnoi community&#8217;s <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">enduring commitment to wildlife and nature conservation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lizard is a <\/span><b>small-bodied species<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with a snout-vent length of 39.2 mm.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It displays a <\/span><b>greyish to olive-brown colouration<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, marked by a <\/span><b>pair of dorsolateral stripes<\/b> <b>extending from the neck towards the tail.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Distinctive black markings<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> occur <\/span><b>behind the eyes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while the <\/span><b>body bears irregular dark blotches<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> interspersed with white spots, giving it a mottled appearance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>underside <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is <\/span><b>pale grey to offwhite.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At present, Mesalina bishnoi is known only from its type locality in the Bikaner district and is <\/span><b>considered endemic to the Thar biogeographic province.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/city\/jaipur\/new-lizard-species-found-in-raj-mesalinas-first-record-in-india\/articleshow\/131442700.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TOI<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mesalina bishnoi is a new species of lizard discovered near Gajner in Bikaner district, Rajasthan. Read more about Mesalina bishnoi, Discovery, Habitat, Conservation, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":106315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7903],"class_list":["post-106299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-mesalina-bishnoi","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106299","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106299"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106340,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106299\/revisions\/106340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}