Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity 4(2): 22-27 (2020) - (http://jwb.araku.ac.ir/) Research Article DOI: 10.22120/jwb.2019.114328.1089 Morphological variation of Iranian Goby (Ponticola iranicus) in the Anzali Wetland drainage a result of their habitat adaptation such as 1 1 Nasrin Nikmehr , Soheil Eagderi* , current type and feeding. Hadi Poorbager1, Keyvan Abbasi2 Keywords: Canonical Variate Analysis, Iranian 1 Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Natural Goby, Morphometric, Principle Component Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran Analysis 2*Research Institute, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, Bandar Introduction Anzali, Iran A study on fishes in the aquatic ecosystem is *email:
[email protected] Received: 15 September 2019 / Revised: 21 October 2019 / essential in terms of biology, ecology, and water Accepted: 10 October 2019 / Published online: 18 October 2019. resources management (Nelson et al. 2016). Ministry of Sciences, Research, and Technology, Arak University, Iran. Morphology is a crucial biological character in fishes because it affects their survival, Abstract reproduction, and feeding (Guill et al. 2003). This study was conducted to compare the Body shape plays a vital role in quantity morphological characteristics of Ponticola description, morphological comparison iranicus populations from the Anzali Wetland (Zelditch et al. 2004), and biodiversity and drainage (wetland and it's two draining rivers, systematic studies (Adams et al. 2004). Gobiids namely Siahdarvishan and Pasikhan, Southern include 15 genera and 42 species in Iranian Caspian Sea basin). For this purpose, five inland waters. The genus Ponticola comprises specimens of P. iranicus from the Pasikhan six species, and they can be distinguished by River, ten from Siah-Darvishan River, and eight having an acute lateral lobe, dentary with several from the Anzali Wetland were collected.