Abstract

Principal component and discriminant analyses were used to investigate morphological differences between Schizothorax niger Heckel 1838 and Schizothorax esocinus Heckel 1838 from River Jhelum, Kashmir, India. The purpose of this study was to identify the two species correctly and assign them into distinct genetic groups. Seven morphometric measurements (body weight, standard length, total length, head length, body depth, pre-dorsal length and caudal fin length) were studied in 100 fish specimens. All the studied morphometric characters reported higher mean values (p<0.01) in S. niger. The use of multivariant techniques such as principal component analysis, showed that the differences between the species resulted mainly from body weight, standard length, pre-dorsal length, head length, total length and caudal fin length. The stepwise discriminant analysis revealed that morphometric traits namely, standard length, pre-dorsal length and caudal fin length were the three most important variables to clearly distinguish the two species. Cross validation test using leave-one-out procedure indicated that 89% original grouped cases correctly classified into their groups, whereas 89% of cross validated grouped cases were correctly classified. Keywords: Fish stocks, Morphology, Schizothorax, Snow trout, Variation

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