Morphometric variation of Periophthalmus waltoni Koumans, 1941(Teleostei: Gobiidae) in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman

Document Type : Research articles

Authors

Mehdi Ghanbarifardi ¹

Mansour Aliabadian ¹

Hamid Reza Esmaeili ²

¹ Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

² Department of Biology, College of Sciences, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

10.22067/ijab.v10i2.34688

Abstract

Morphometric variation of 154 specimens of Periophthalmus waltoni from seven different sites in the Persian Gulf and Makran Sea (Gulf of Oman) were analyzed based on ten morphometric characters. Canonical Variate Analysis of the sampling sites suggested a partial separation between the north-western sites and the central plus south-eastern sites. Moving larvae were probably the main factor connecting P. waltoni populations from different sites and keeping them similar, morphologically and probably genetically. We concluded that environmental factors could be the main explanation for morphological differences between P. waltoni specimens from different stations.

Keywords

Gulf of Oman

morphometric variables

mudskippers

Persian Gulf

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