Morphometric and Meristic Characteristics of Four Scorpaenoid Species from Antalya Bay, Türkiye

Abstract

The morphometrics and meristic characteristics of Scorpaena scrofa, Scorpaena elongata, Scorpaena notata and Helicolenus dactylopterus species from Antalya Bay, Turkey, were researched in the present study. In total, 70, 62, 35, and 156 individuals of four Scorpaenoid fish species were collected, respectively. The methods of Bauchot (1987) was followed for morphometric measurements and meristic counts. In the present study, fifteen morphometric and nine meristic characters were taken to study all four Scorpanoid species. The results of the present study revealed that most relationships between these selected morphometric and meristic characters and the total length (TL) were found to be strong (r>0.70) and highly significant (t-test; p0.05). Thus, our present study proved that morphological characters hold their key importance not only in the systematics but all these characters could also be valuable in observing the phenotypic variations among the male and female individuals belong to the same species. The current study concluded that all selected morphometric and meristic characters were useful in observing phenotypic variations among the male and female populations of the four selected Scorpaenoid species. As a result, the present study will provide useful information on the morphometric and meristic characteristics of all four selected Scorpaenoid species and their sexes, allowing us to compare and contrast growth patterns and body measurements.