Comparison of morphological characteristics of Lapillus ear stone in four species of the genus Capoeta in Iran

Otoliths are structures in the inner ear cavity of teleost fish and serve in hearing andbalance functions. This structure is applied to identify and study of interspeciesdiversity of fish species. The sagitta is the largest otolith in fishes but in cyprinids,asteriscus and lapillus have been reported as the largest otoliths, respectively. Apreliminary examination of otoliths in the member of genus Capoeta showed thatlapillus is largest one in this genus. Hence this study was conducted to comparemorphological features of lapillus ear stone among four species of the genus Capoetaincluding C. trutta, C. damascina, C. aculata and C .gracilis from Iranian inlandwaters in order to its feasible application to identify and study of their interspeciesdiversity. For this purpose the lapillus ear stone of 10 specimens of every speciesremoved and photographed by a light microscope equipped to digital camera. Thentheir shape were described and their length, width and depth measured and comparedusing CVA analysis. The results revealed a significant differences among studiedspecies in terms of morphological characters (P<0.05). The results also showed thatlapillus ear stone as largest otolith in the member of the genus Capoeta has speciesspecified features and therefore can be used to identify and taxonomy of the memberof this genus.

Keywords:

Ear stone , Shape , Lapillus , Recognizition