{"id":107174,"date":"2026-06-08T12:49:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T07:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=107174"},"modified":"2026-06-08T13:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T08:19:15","slug":"bascanichthys-chepakakiensis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/bascanichthys-chepakakiensis\/","title":{"rendered":"Bascanichthys chepakakiensis"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Bascanichthys chepakakiensis Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, marine scientists have discovered a new species of snake eel and officially named Bascanichthys chepakakiensis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Bascanichthys chepakakiensis<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a new <\/span><b>species of snake eel<\/b> <b>discovered in <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kakinada fishing harbour <\/span><b>in Andhra Pradesh.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The specific name, <\/span><b>chepakakiensis,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a combination of two words from the regional Telugu language: chepa, which means &#8220;fish,&#8221; and &#8220;kaki, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> shortened nickname for Kakinada.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the only <\/span><b>second time a species of this snake-eel genus<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has been described from Indian waters.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Features of Bascanichthys chepakakiensis<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has a <\/span><b>distinct bicoloured body.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has a <\/span><b>noticeably shorter snout<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a different tooth arrangement in its jaws, and fewer vertebrae before its anal fin.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also possesses <\/span><b>incredibly tiny, flap-like pectoral fins<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that are barely visible.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>What are Snake eels?<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Snake eels are <\/span><b>members of the family Ophichthidae<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and are named for their snake-like appearance<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Habitat:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> These eels mainly live in sandy areas in shallow seas, however some live in depths to 800m.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They are found <\/span><b>in both tropical and temperate<\/b> <b>waters<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in oceans around the world.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The snake eel <\/span><b>uses its tail to burrow backward<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> into the sea bottom, creating a protective burrow.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/researchmatters.in\/news\/rare-new-snake-eel-species-discovered-amongst-fishing-bycatch-coast-kakinada\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">RM<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bascanichthys chepakakiensis is a new species of snake eel discovered in Kakinada fishing harbour in Andhra Pradesh. Read more about Bascanichthys chepakakiensis, Discovery, Habitat, Features, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":107199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8017,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-107174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-bascanichthys-chepakakiensis","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107174","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107174"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107228,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107174\/revisions\/107228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}