Phenotypic variation of greater lizard fish (Saurida tumbil) in Northern Persian Gulf (Hormozgan waters)

In this study, the structure of fish populations of Saurida tumbil in the waters of Hormozgan province was studied using morphometric and meristic characteristics. Samples were obtained from three parts of Bandar Lengeh, Hormoz Island and Minab and 22 morphometric characteristics and 5 meristic characteristics were measured in each fish .Morphometric characteristics were standardized before the analysis to reduce the errors caused by alometric growth. The results of one-way ANOVA showed that 9 morphometric characteristics were significantly different among the samples in different regions, also, there were no significant statistical differences between the specimens in the 5 meristic characteristics. The results obtained from the distinguishing functions 1 and 2 for the morphometric characteristics showed a high degree of differentiation among Saurida tumbil stocks in the three studied regions. While there was little difference about the meristic characteristics and the samples areas were highly overlapping in the three study. On the other hand, the percentages of people who were correctly placed in their main population were for morphometric and meristic characteristics, 94.3% and 49.5% respectively. The results of this study showed that S.tumbil differ in terms of morphometric features and it is likely that there exist different stocks of this species in Iranian coasts of the Persian Gulf in Hormozgan that should be considered for fisheries management.