Dual-Sex Crab of Silent Valley:
Researchers have found a rare case of gynandromorphy—a condition where an organism displays both male and female characteristics (e.g., male reproductive structures alongside female gonopores)—in a freshwater crab species, Vela carli.
- Vela carli is an endemic freshwater crab species discovered within the tree holes of Silent Valley National Park in the Western Ghats.
- This study documents the first instance of gynandromorphy in the freshwater crab family Gecarcinucidae. While known in other crustaceans, it had never before been reported in this specific family.
- Crustaceans are aquatic invertebrate animals belonging to the arthropod group (animals with jointed legs and an external skeleton). It includes Crabs, Lobsters, Shrimp, Prawns, etc.
- Silent Valley National Park, located in the Nilgiri Hills of Kerala, is a pristine tropical evergreen forest. It is renowned as one of the last undisturbed tracts of the South Western Ghats and the core of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (1986), India’s first biosphere reserve.
