SCIENTIA MARINA 72S1 July 2008, 7-198, Barcelona (Spain) ISSN: 0214-8358 Otolith atlas for the western Mediterranean, north and central eastern Atlantic VICTOR M. TUSET 1, ANTONI LOMBARTE 2 and CARLOS A. ASSIS 3 1 Instituto Canario de Ciencias Marinas, Departamento de Biología Pesquera, P.O. Box. 56, E-35200 Telde (Las Palmas), Canary Islands, Spain. E-mail:
[email protected] 2 Institut de Ciències del Mar-CSIC, Departament de Recursos Marins Renovables, Passeig Marítim 37-49, Barcelona 08003, Catalonia, Spain. 3 Instituto de Oceanografia e Departamento de Biologia Animal, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal. SUMMARY: The sagittal otolith of 348 species, belonging to 99 families and 22 orders of marine Teleostean fishes from the north and central eastern Atlantic and western Mediterranean were described using morphological and morphometric characters. The morphological descriptions were based on the otolith shape, outline and sulcus acusticus features. The mor- phometric parameters determined were otolith length (OL, mm), height (OH, mm), perimeter (P; mm) and area (A; mm2) and were expressed in terms of shape indices as circularity (P2/A), rectangularity (A/(OL×OH)), aspect ratio (OH/OL; %) and OL/fish size. The present Atlas provides information that complements the characterization of some ichthyologic taxa. In addition, it constitutes an important instrument for species identification using sagittal otoliths collected in fossiliferous layers, in archaeological sites or in feeding remains of bony fish predators. Keywords: otolith, sagitta, morphology, morphometry, western Mediterranean, north eastern Atlantic, central eastern Atlantic. RESUMEN: Otolitos de peces del mediterráneo occidental y del atlántico central y nororiental.