Morphological comparison in the member of genus Paracobitis using geometric morphometric technique

Morphological studies is considered as a proper method to differentiate populationsand species in fishes. Hence, this study was carried out by collecting 130 specimenof genus Paracobitis belonging to three species of P. malapterura (from Zarin-Goland Madarsoo Rivers), P. iranica (from Kordan and Ghare-chai Rivers) and P.rhadinaeus (from Chah-Nimeh reservoir). Left side of specimen were photographedafter their fixation using 10% formalin solution and then fifteen landmark points weredigitized on obtained 2D pictures using TpsDig2 software to extract body shape data.Generalized Procrust Analysis (GPA) was used to remove non-shape data in PASTsoftware. The data analyzed using PCA, CVA and Cluster analysis in PAST andMorphoJ softwares. The PCA differentiated all groups and CVA based on procrustesdistances showed a significant difference among studied taxa (P<0.0001). Inaddition, cluster analysis revealed that populations of P. iranica from Kordan andGhare-chai Rivers show different morphological body shape pattern may be relatedto their adaptation to various environmental conditions of their habitat or being twodifferent species.

Keywords:

Morphology , Zarin-Gol , Kordan , Zabol , Ghare-chai , Paracobitis