Assessment of the morphometry of saccular otoliths as a tool to identify triplefin species (Tripterygiidae).

AVIGLIANO,E; LAITH. J; AV. VOLPEDO

JOURNAL OF THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2016 vol. 95 p. 1167 - 1180

0025-3154

In the present work we describe nine saccular otoliths morphometricindices (circularity, rectangularity, aspect ratio, percentage of the otolithsurface occupied by the sulcus, percentage of the sulcus length occupiedby the cauda length and ostium length, otolith length relative to the lengthof the fish, rostrum aspect ratio and percentage of the rostrum lengthoccupied by the otolith length) of 41 species of the Tripterygiidae familycollected mainly from New Zealand, Australia, Chile, South Africa,Mediterranean Sea and North America. The principal component of analysisshowed that the indices best explain the variability between species wererelated to sulcus and rostrum morphometry. According to cluster analysis,otolith morphometry could reflect the diversity of microenvironments forsome genera such as Notoclinops and Forsterygion, while this does nothappen to genera like Enneapterygius and Ruanoho. The discriminantanalysis showed that the species Helcogrammoides cunninghami, Karalepisstewarti, Lepidoblennius haplodactylus, Notoclinus compressus, Uclaxenogrammus can be discriminated by using the morphometric indices.Two new indices related to the sulcus that were of great value for thediscrimination of these species are described for the first time. Thisinformation will be a useful tool for palaeontological, taxonomic and trophicecology studies.