engleski

Morphometric and meristic characteristics of Synodus saurus (Linnaeus, 1758) from the eastern Adriatic Sea

Until recently, the Atlantic lizardfish was considered rare in the eastern Adriatic, but in recent years it became relatively common in the middle Adriatic Sea. Data about its biological characteristics in the Adriatic Sea are very scarce. Therefore, the aim of this research was to determine its basic biological characteristics, including its morphometric and meristic characteristics. The study was conducted on 119 individuals collected on a monthly basis depending on its availability, but most individuals were collected in the colder months. Total body lengths of caught individuals ranged from 19.3 to 39.5 cm and weights from 49.96 to 460.12 g. Male to female ratio was 1:1.33. The mean total lengths of females were significantly larger than those of males. Our results showed the difference between males and females in five analyzed morphometric ratios. Although the differences for particular morphometric ratios were statistically significant, a relatively large overlap of the range of values did not allow a clear distinction between males and females based only on morphometric characteristics. The differences in the mean values of the analyzed meristic characteristics between males and females were not statistically significant.

Synodus saurus, morphometric, meristic, Adriatic Sea

nije evidentirano