Otolith shape analysis of three mudskipper species of Persian Gulf

The variation in otolith shape of three syntopic species of mudskippers Boleophthalmus dussumieri, Periophthalmus waltoni, and Scartelaos tenuis from the tidal flats of Qeshm Island in Persian Gulf was studied based on Elliptic Fourier Analysis. Principal component analysis and Discriminant analysis could separate the specimens of every species with 100% classification success, which proves the variability of otolith among the three fish species. Cluster analysis produced two main clusters, one cluster encompasses only specimens from P. waltoni and the other contains S. tenuis and B. dussumieri. The result of the present study revealed the power of geometric morphometrics in discriminating the three mudskippers. It is also concluded that otolith traits especially its geometric morphometric could be regarded as an invaluable source of information for paleontology, phylogeny, taxonomy and ecology of fishes.