“…Other contributions to this taxonomic problem in the family are the inadequate or incomplete descriptions of type materials, their poor current condition, loss of some of them, and lack of published taxonomic reviews (Yáñez-Arancibia 1980). Otoliths, the calcium carbonate structures located in fish inner ear, have been used as an auxiliary characteristic for identification of fishes in paleoichthyology (Nolf 1995) and stock recognition in fisheries management (Begg and Brown 2000, Tuset et al 2003a, Neves et al 2011, as well as a useful morphological character in taxonomy (Torres et al 2000a, Tuset et al 2006, systematics (Lombarte et al 1991, Smale et al 1995, Volpedo and Echeverría 2000, and food habits analysis (Radhakrishnan et al 2010). Otolith shape has long been known to be species-specific (L'Abée-Lund 1988) and less variable in growth than body growth, presumably because otoliths are internal organs contributing to audition and balance (Lord et al 2012), although its morphology can often vary geographically within a species (Lombarte and Lleonart 1993).…”