Meristic and Morphometric Variations of Barred Spiny EEL Macrognathus pancalus Populations from Bangladeshi Freshwaters: An Insight Into Landmark-Based Truss Network System

Abstract

The present research focuses to examine the meristic and landmark-based morphometric variations of barred spiny eel Macrognathus pancalus from four populations namely Dhakuria beel, Jessore (DBJ); Bohnni boar, Gopalgonj (BBG); the Arial kha river, Madaripur (AKRM) and the Nabaganga river, Jhenidah (NRJ) in Bangladeshi freshwaters. Six meristic counts were compared among four populations and significant differences were observed in number of caudal fin rays and number of pelvic fin rays in all meristic characters. The truss protocol was used in the present study based on six general morphometrics and fifteen truss measurements. Univariate statistics showed that five (standard length (SL), upper jaw length (UJL), lower jaw length (LJL), head depth (HD) and inter orbital (IO)) of six morphometric and eleven truss networks (viz. 2-3, 3-4, 5-6, 6-7, 7-8, 1-8, 2-8, 3-8, 3-7, 4-7 and 5-7) among fifteen truss measurements differed significantly. Cannonical discriminate function analyses were conducted among samples and the populations were fully intermingled. Pooled within-group correlation showed morphometric and landmark measurements; the first discriminant function (DF) accounted for 79%, the second DF accounted for 15.9% and third DF accounted for 5.1% of group variability. An euclidian dendrogram was prepared based on morphometric and truss measurements in four populations, where two clusters were mainly formed, in which first cluster formed by NRJ population was fully separated, and the second cluster was formed by two populations of AKRM and DBJ. Additionally, a subcluster BBG was formed with AKRM. On the basis of morphometric and truss measurements, 68.8%, 83.6%, 55.6% and 80% of original grouped cases were correctly classified in NRJ, AKRM, DBJ and BBG, respectively. These results specify the presence of different stocks of fish from four aquatic habitats. This study is highly significant for proper conservation and effective management of M. pancalus populations as well as for the scientific community for further research.

The variability of morphometric and meristic characteristics of Urmia chub, Petroleuciscus ulanus (G nther, 1899) in the Mahabd-Chai and Godar-Chai rivers, Lake Urmia basin

“…The major difference was ventral fin length, which can be used to identify these two populations. The observed differences are probably due to the hydrologic features of their habitats e.g., velocity and current patterns that facilities their swimming performance in their specific habitat (Bagarinao, 1981;Swain et al, 2005;Haas et al, 2010;Mahfuj et al, 2019;Styga et al, 2019). According to Kuliev (1997), it is expected to observe differences in meristic traits in fishes in different latitudes; however, due to the almost similar latitude of both populations, little differences in the meristic data were observed.…”

Intraspecific morphological variations of the vulnerable loach, Lepidocephalichthys annandalei (Cypriniformes: Cobitidae) in inland waterbodies at southwestern Bangladesh

“…For valid documentation, each individual was provided a special code. The digital photographs were acquired with a Cyber‐shot camera (Sony DSC‐W730, China), which supplied a comprehensive archive of physical appearance and permitted for repeat measurements if required (Cadrin & Friedland, 1999; Mahfuj, Khatun, Boidya, & Samad, 2019).…”

Intra- and interspecific discrimination of Scorpaena species from the Aegean, Black, Mediterranean and Marmara seas

“…such as Rastrelliger kanagurta from peninsular India (Jayasankar et al 2004), Clarias gariepinus from Turkey (Turan et al 2005), Pomatomus saltatrix from the Aegean, Black, and Mediterranean seas (Turan et al 2006), the genus Puntius from Assam, India (Choudhury et al 2011), Catla catla from India (Ujjainia and Kohli 2011), rattail fish from New Zealand (Ibáñez and Jawad 2018), Barbonymus spp. from Aceh, Indonesia (Batubara et al 2018) and Macrognathus pancalus from Bangladesh (Mahfuj et al 2019a).…”