Parveen Farzana Absar

Parveen F. Absar is a wildlife biologist from India. In 2017, she was credited with the discovery of a species of freshwater crab called Teretamon absarum, of the genus Teretamon and species spelaeum.

Early life

Parveen Farzana Absar was born in 1988, to Ahsan Absar and Farzana Absar.

Education and career Absar earned her master's degree in Wildlife Sciences from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, in June 2017. She did her dissertation under Orus Ilyas, an assistant professor in the Wildlife Sciences Department at AMU.

Teretamon absarum

Discovery Underside view of Teretamon spelaeum (Male). It is smaller than the female, and this specimen has one missing claw. Credits: Parveen F. Absar. Absar discovered the species in Meghalaya, which is in the northeastern Himalayan region of India. At the time of discovery, Absar was 29 years old and had 11 years of experience. In her dissertation, she highlights the presence of thick limestone in Meghalaya's caves as being a rich abode for various life forms, from invertebrates to advanced vertebrates, and identifies the region as rich for study in biospeleology. Meghalaya has 1,580 identified caves, including nine out of ten of the longest and deepest caves in India. Moreover, Absar emphasizes the unexplored scope of cave biology research in the already explored caves of Meghalaya. Meghalaya is already considered to be one of India's four biodiversity hotspots, with there being a total of 34 hotspots globally.

Genus Teretamon This is only the third species discovered so far under this genus: the first one was found in Myanmar and the second one was found in the Indian state of Mizoram. and it was discovered in Mizoram by Santanu Mitra, a scientist at ZSI in 2016, In Husa Town, Yunnan Province, China, scientists Da Pan, Boyang Shi, and Hongying Sun have identified Teretamon husicum. in 2017. Absar shares credit for her finding with Santanu Mitra, the lead collaborator and researcher on the team at ZSI, and Ilona Kharkongor, a fellow researcher focused on cave biology in Meghalaya.