Comparison of morphological characters in Turkmenian and Kura varieties of Caspian roach (Rutilus rutilus caspicus, Yakovlev, 1870) using geometric morphometric approach

Subject Areas : New Technologies in Aquaculture Development

Received: 2020-09-02 Accepted : 2020-09-02 Published : 2020-02-20

Keywords: Keywords: Caspian roach, Geometric morphometric, Kura, Turkmenian,

Abstract :

Abstract[1] This study was conducted to compare the morphilogical traites of Turkmenian and Kura varieties of Caspian roach using landmark-based geometric morphometric (GM) approach. A total 120 specimens from Gomishan Wetland in southwest and Talesh region in southwest of Caspian Sea were sampled. The left side of specimens were photographed and fourteen landmark-points were digitized on 2-D images using TpsDig2. Landmark data after GPA, analyzed using multivariate analysis including DFA, Ttest-Hotelling and CVA/Manova. Results displayed significant differences between the body shape of male and female of each population and also between two populations. Results also showed that Kura variety has bigger head, longer anal fin and deeper body depth than Turkmenian one. In addition, the result of this study found other body shape differences in relation to pervious studies. This cane be as result of better ability of GM approach to study the biological shape and precence of sexual dimorphism in Caspian roach. Morphological divergence between Turkmenian and Kura varieties can be related to evolutionary process of their body shape in respond to environmental factors of their habitat in the Caspian Sea. * Corresponding authors; [e-mail]