Species discrimination of clupeoid fishes (Pisces: Clupeiformes) from Andaman waters based on moprho-meristic characters

Abstract

Analysis of morphometric and meristic traits of 11 clupeoids occurring along Andaman coast showed successful differentiation of them based on morphological variables. Higher F-ratio for body depth, mouth length and dorsal fin base signifies their role in species separation either alone or in combination with other morphometric characters. Stepwise discriminant function analysis included all ten considered variables showing their taxonomic significance with body depth, mouth length and dorsal fin base, as the most important discriminating characters. The first two discriminant functions accounted for the explanation of 85.01 % of total variation. Cumulative figure reaches 92.02% when third root is also considered. Means of canonical scores signify the sufficiency of Root 1, Root 2 and Root 3 in discriminating all the considered species except the two members of genus Sardinella. SDFA gives correct classification in 94.60% cases. Meristic features were found to be overlapping except in few instances and are found to discriminate only higher taxa.