Morphological Distinction Between Juvenile Stages of the European Sturgeon Acipenser sturio and the Atlantic Sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus

Wuertz, Sven; Reiser, Stefan; Geßner, Jörn; Kirschbaum, Frank

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-20611-5_4

Cited by 8 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…This phenomenon was already suggested by Wuertz et al. (), who described the bone surface pattern of juvenile A. oxyrinchus as ‘spiny’. Possibly, the pattern type observed in our smaller A. oxyrinchus and defined as tubercular corresponds to this ‘spiny’ type or to some transitional stage between the ‘spiny’ and alveolar types.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 60%

“…(), in which morphological and genetic species identifications of archaeological and museum specimens were compared, indicate that the surface structure of dermal bones is not a foolproof species‐specific trait; when researchers use only this criterion, hybrid individuals may remain undetected. In addition, some ambiguity may arise when dealing with different‐sized individuals, since the surface pattern of both A. oxyrinchus and A. sturio changes as they grow to adult size (Wuertz et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inter- and intraspecific variation in the surface pattern of the dermal bones of two sturgeon species

et al. 2016

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Summary Archaeological bone remains of sturgeon (Acipenser sturio/Acipenser oxyrinchus) from northwestern Europe are often identified to species on the basis of their surface morphology and then used to reconstruct the spatial distribution of the two species through time. The dermal bones of A. sturio are said to have an exterior surface pattern consisting of tubercles, while those of A. oxyrinchus are said to display alveoli. In the present paper, the validity of the surface pattern as a species‐specific characteristic is critically assessed. To this purpose, dermal plates from modern, genetically identified museum specimens were studied and the surface morphology observed in a series of archaeological remains was compared with the genetic identifications obtained on these same remains. The analyses show that the surface pattern of dermal bones is related to the size of the individual, with the pattern of small A. oxyrinchus being similar to that of A. sturio. In addition, variations in the surface pattern among the bones of a single individual and within the same bone have been observed. These findings explain previous conflicting results between morphological and genetic identifications and allow the formulation of some recommendations for more accurate morphological identification of isolated archaeological sturgeon dermal bones.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 60%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter- and intraspecific variation in the surface pattern of the dermal bones of two sturgeon species

et al. 2016

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“…Earlier, the sturgeon scutes were studied by other researchers in the field of morphological structure (Warth et al, 2017;Leprévost et al, 2017), environmental influence (Altenritter et al, 2015) and species identification (Thieren et al, 2015, Wuertz et al, 2011, but without studying the sex.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The question remains about the sex depending on scute structure in the other sturgeon species. For example, studies by (Wuertz et al, 2011) show that between juveniles of European (A. sturio) and Atlantic (A. oxyrinchus) sturgeons, there were differences in the scute structure, that were preserved in sexually mature individuals (Thieren et al, 2015 ). As is known, 25 from 27 sturgeon species have 5 scute rows.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scute structure reveals sex of juvenile and young sturgeon in caviar aquaculture technology

Barulin

2018

Preprint

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Sturgeons are valued as specialty black caviar, which is very expensive. Only females are used in the technology of caviar aquaculture. Universal method of sex determination has not yet been developed. Most of known methods are not sufficiently accurate, or used at a relatively late age, or difficult to use. Perfect early determination of sex is considered to be impossible. Because of the dark color of most sturgeon, important morphological differences, which fish of almost all ages have, were overlooked. We first found that the scute structure of Sterlet and Siberian sturgeon depends on the sex, such a pattern is typical for sturgeon of all ages. We found that sex determination is possible at very early stages. Dependencies found with the help of machine learning method open a possibility for creation of sex determination equipment using the artificial intelligence. Our results open a perspective for creation of the sex determination methods for other 23 sturgeon species, which can increase the efficiency of caviar aquaculture and sturgeon restoration in natural waters.

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“…Morphological discrimination between the two species of adult sturgeons relies mainly on the number of dorsal and ventral scutes and the surface of the scutes. Recently, several important characteristics that enable to distinguish juveniles, including the diagnostic number of lateral and dorsal scutes, the absence or presence of the fontanelle and the surface of the scutes, were described (Wuertz et al., ). However, taxonomical identification of young and even adult fishes is difficult for non‐specialists, especially as some of the traits are individually variable, change during the life cycle and display ecological plasticity (Timoshkina et al., ; Wuertz et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A PCR-RFLP based test for distinguishing European and Atlantic sturgeons

et al. 2013

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Summary The two sister species of Atlantic and European sturgeon are difficult to distinguish solely by morphological traits, especially in their early life stages. A simple PCR‐RFLP based test was developed, enabling easy identification of specimens belonging to both species. The application of two restriction enzymes (BtsI and BsrDI) allowed the clear and unambiguous discrimination of 132 specimens of Atlantic and European sturgeon. The test should prove particularly useful with regard to the sturgeon restitution programs currently underway on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

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Morphological Distinction Between Juvenile Stages of the European Sturgeon Acipenser sturio and the Atlantic Sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus

Cited by 8 publications

References 17 publications

Inter- and intraspecific variation in the surface pattern of the dermal bones of two sturgeon species

Inter- and intraspecific variation in the surface pattern of the dermal bones of two sturgeon species

Scute structure reveals sex of juvenile and young sturgeon in caviar aquaculture technology

A PCR-RFLP based test for distinguishing European and Atlantic sturgeons

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