The Effect of Body Shape Type on Differentiability of Traditional and Geometric Morphometric Methods: A Case Study of Channa gachua (Hamilton, 1822)

Abstract

Objective: The morphological differences of two populations of the Dwarf snakehead, Channa gachua (Hamilton, 1822) from Sarbaz (Makran basin) and Halil (Hamun-e Jaz Murian basin) rivers were studied using geometric and traditional morphometrics (GM and TM) methods to test the hypothesis that the type of body shape can produce different results. Materials and Methods: A total of 16 landmark-points and 12 distance measurements were defined to analyse the body shape differences and the extracted data were analyzed using GM and TM methods. Results: Our findings reject the hypothesis, and the results revealed that GM is more effective in detecting meticulous morphological differences. Conclusion: In addition, the results suggest selecting a proper method i.e. GM or TM, based on the degree of accuracy needed i.e. if we need to find small shape differences within its signification, GM is a superior technique, or to show the type of differences, then we can use TM.