دارا باقری

Envoronmental factors play an important role in shaping fish morphology, infact, it is the environment that makes the fish superfacial shape. It is based on the fish body shape that we can infer the type of swimming behavior and the type of fish habitat, thus, using the fish body shape, in addition to its genetic characteristics, one can obtain the type of fish habitat and its characteristics. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the morphological characteristics of populations of abu mullet in Iranian basins using geometric morphometric method. For this purpose, 162 specimens from Bushehr Basin (Kaki, Mond, Heleh, Genaveh and Hendijan rivers), 24 from Tigris Basin (Karkheh River) and 14 from Hormuz Basin, were sampled. Three morphometric characters, total length, fork length and standard length and body weight were measured and 14 meristics including number of branched and unbranched dorsal fin rays, branched and unbranched anal fin rays, anal fin rays, caudal fin rays, branched and unbranched pelvic fin rays, branched pectoral fin rays, gill rakers, number of lateral line scales, below lateral line scales, above lateral line scales, predorsal and circumcaudal scales were counted. Samples were photographed from the left side, then 18 land marks were digitized using ImageJ software. Data obtained from Procrustes were analyzed by multivariate analysis of CVA and PCA. Comparison of meristic traits of studied populations including number of soft rays, number of gill rays, number of lateral line scales, below lateral line scales, predorsal and circumcaudal scales showed significant differences (P<0.05). The results of CVA analysis in comparing Bushehr basin populations showed that highest mahalanubis and procrustes distance was between Hendijan and Kaki populations. PCA analysis showed significant diferences between the populations when Hormuz and Tigris basins were compared and Kaki population showed the highest difference with other populations (P<0.0001). The major