Body shape comparison of Makran and Hurmoz populations of Aphanius dispar (66TRüppell, 1829) 66Tusing geometric morphometrics

Evolution of isolated populations can be caused adaptation to environmentalconditions of habitats and this can be led to morphological and genetic divergence ofpopulations. This study was carried out to compare the body shape of Aphaniusdispar in Makran and Hormuz basins using geometric morphometrics method. A total240 specimens were sampled from studied populations including Sarbaz, Mehran andShour rivers. Digital picture of specimens were taken from their left side using adigital camera and seventeen landmark points were defined and digitized usingtpsDig2 software. Obtained data after GPA, analyzed using PCA, CVA andMANOVAfor each sex separately. Results revealed that studied population can bedifferitiated based on their body shap but between male and female population of theShour and Mehran rivers did not found significant different. Sexual dimorphismfound in the morphological charactristics of the head and trunk regions. The observedmophological differences can reflect the habitat-associated morphologicaldivergence and relation of geographical distance and morphological divergence inthe studied populations.

Keywords:

Geometric morphometrics , Sarbaz River , Mehran River , Shour River