Introduction to study of morphologic characters of Otoliths of some economic pelagic fishes of Persian Gulf
Subject Areas : Journal of Large Animal Clinical Science Research(JLACSR)
Keywords: Fishes, Otolith, Pelagic, morphologic characters, Persian Golf,
Abstract :
This study was done in order to study the shape and some morphologic characters of otoliths of some economic pelagic fishes of Persian Gulf and the possibility of using these characters to identify the species from their otoliths. In this study otoliths (sagittae) of 6 species of economic pelagic fishes of Persian Gulf were removed and some morphologic characters of the otoliths were studied. The species belonged to Scombridae family with 3 species consist of Scomberomorus commerson, S. guttatus and Thunnus tonggol, and Clupeidae family with two species consist of Sardinella sindensis, Dussumieria acuta and Engraulidae family consist of one species Encrasicholina punctifer. Biometry was done after choosing the species and the results were recorded, then the otoliths were removed. The shape of the otoliths were studied and their morphometric characteristics like length, width, thickness and weight of all left and right otoliths were measured and recorded. In this study thickness, longitude and size of otoliths were defined as indexes to compare otoliths. The results of this study showed that otoliths of pelagic fishes compared with otoliths of demersal fishes are small and in Scombridae family are thin and brittle. otoliths in large pelagic fishes from scombridae family (Scomberomorus commerson, S. guttatus and Thunnus tonggol) are small, long and thin. Otoliths in small pelagic fishes (Sardinella sindensis, Dussumieria acuta and Encrasicholina punctifer) are small with moderate longitude and thickness. The results of this study show that otoliths of different species from a family can have similarities in appearance but have enough differences to be distinguished from each other.
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