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Morphological Variations in Marine Pufferfish and Porcupinefish (Teleostei: Tetraodontiformes) from Tamil Nadu, Southeastern Coast of India

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Morphological Variations in Marine Pufferfish and Porcupinefish (Teleostei: Tetraodontiformes) from Tamil Nadu, Southeastern Coast of India OPEN ACCESS The Journal of Threatened Taxa is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use of artcles in any medium, reproducton, and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Article Morphological variations in marine pufferfish and porcupinefish (Teleostei: Tetraodontiformes) from Tamil Nadu, southeastern coast of India K. Kaleshkumar, R. Rajaram, P. Purushothaman & G. Arun 26 November 2018 | Vol. 10 | No. 13 | Pages: 12726–12737 10.11609/jot.4028.10.13.12726-12737 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints contact <[email protected]> Publisher & Host Partners Member Threatened Taxa Morphological variatons in marineJournal puferfsh of and Threatened porcupinefsh Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 November 2018 | 10(13): Kaleshkumar 12726–12737 et al. Article Morphological variations in marine pufferfish and porcupinefish (Teleostei: Tetraodontiformes) from ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) Tamil Nadu, southeastern coast of India ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) K. Kaleshkumar 1 , R. Rajaram 2 , P. Purushothaman 3 & G. Arun 4 OPEN ACCESS 1,2,4 DNA Barcoding & Marine Genomics Laboratory, Department of Marine Science, School of Marine Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu 620024, India 3 Crustacean Fisheries Division, Central Marine Fisheries Research Insttute (CMFRI), Ernakulam North P.O., P.B. No. 1603, Cochin, Kerala 682018, India 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected] (corresponding author), 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected] Abstract: In the present study, morphological variatons in 14 species of two families, Tetraodontdae and Diodontdae, were examined for individuals collected from fve diferent centres in Tamil Nadu in the southeastern coast of India. Twenty-seven morphological measurements and four meristc characters were taken and used for multvariate analyses such as discriminant functon analysis (DFA) & MANOVA. DFA revealed that the frst two functons accounted for more than 75% variaton between the species. Negatve allometric values were observed on head length (HL), orbital length (OL), pupil diameter (PD), interorbital length (IOL), pectoral-fn length (PEL), caudal peduncle depth (CPD), dorsal to pectoral fn distance (DPFD), caudal peduncle length (CPL) and post-pectoral-fn length (POPFL) measurements. Also, MANOVA supported the DFA results. Additons, allometric relatonships, and meristc variatons were observed for most of these species. Moreover, this is the frst atempt to describe a greater number of morphological features of the species belonging to the order Tetraodontformes. Keywords: Allometry, Diodontdae, discriminant functon analysis, MANOVA, meristcs, morphometric variaton, porcupinefsh, puferfsh, Tetradontdae, trash fsh. DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4028.10.13.12726-12737 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F298E529-54E9-4E53-B9D8-1AA092C79359 Editor: Keiichi Matsuura, Natonal Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, Japan Date of publicaton: 26 November 2018 (online & print) Manuscript details: Ms # 4028 | Received 24 January 2018 | Final received 11 September 2018 | Finally accepted 26 October 2018 Citaton: Kaleshkumar, K., R. Rajaram, P. Purushothaman & G. Arun (2018). Morphological variatons in marine puferfsh and porcupinefsh (Teleostei: Tetraodont- formes) from Tamil Nadu, southeastern coast of India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 10(13): 12726–12737; htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4028.10.13.12726–-12737 Copyright: © Kaleshkumar et al. 2018. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this artcle in any medium, reproduc- ton and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton. Funding: This work was partly funded (man power) by University Grants Commissions/ Rajiv Gandhi Natonal Fellowship (UGC/RGNF), New Delhi, Government of India (F1-17.1/2016-17/RGNF-2015-17-SC-TAM-19298/ SA-III Website). Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. For Tamil abstract see end of this artcle. Author Details: Mr. K. Kaleshkumar is a PhD research scholar in the Department of Marine Science, whose interest include diversity, distributon, traditonal and molecular taxonomy and nutritonal evaluaton of marine puferfshes. Currently working on distributon, molecular taxonomy and biomedical applicatons of marine puferfshes from Tamil Nadu, south-eastern coast of India. He has seven years of experience in marine puferfshes. Dr. R. Rajaram is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marine Science of Bharathidasan University and his research interest include the ichthyotaxonomy, marine natural products and polluton of marine organisms especially fshes. Mr. P. Purushothaman is a PhD research scholar in crustacean fsheries division, whose interest includes marine diversity and evolutonary relatonships using novel molecular tools. Mr. G. Arun is currently a PhD research scholar, whose interest include taxonomy and ecology of marine hydrozoans. He is experienced in Island ecosystem health assessment, coral transplantaton, SCUBA diving, and coastal survey. Author Contributon: KK & RR conceived & designed the experiments and analyzed the data; KK performed the sample collectons; PP & GA associated the experiments; PP, GA, KK & RR wrote the paper. Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the authorites of Bharathidasan University for the facilites provided. Authors also thank the University Grants Commission/ Rajiv Gandhi Natonal Fellowship (UGC/RGNF), New Delhi, Government of India, for fnancial assistance. 12726 Morphological variatons in marine puferfsh and porcupinefsh Kaleshkumar et al. INTRODUCTION Among the diferent fsh products, fresh and dried puferfsh are an important source of animal protein Geographic variaton in morphometry has been used in Tamil Nadu. The preservaton process starts when it to discriminate local forms of fsh for over a century (Cadrin is harvested and becomes complete when it reaches 2000). Phenotypic diversites exist in morphological the consumer’s table. According to Immaculate et al. variatons within and among populatons (Jefares et al. (2015), paralysis resultng from ingeston of puferfsh 2015) and they may be one of the ways to determine the was reported from southeastern Asia. This kind of origin of divergence and speciaton (Kerschbaumer et al. study, however, has not been carried out on the Indian 2014). Morphometric analysis reveals the diferences in species. The improper handling and misidentfcaton of body shape between diferent individuals to discriminate this species can be adverse to human health. Recently, populatons of the same species (Hirsch et al. 2013), increasing availability and utlizaton of puferfsh in Tamil which can help for the conservaton of biodiversity, Nadu coast has caused health problems to the consumers. management of fshery resources, and identfcaton & The current study deals with understanding the discriminaton of species. morphological variatons of puferfsh and porcupinefsh. Both puferfsh and porcupinefsh belong to the order Tetraodontformes. Tetraodontdae, the family to which puferfsh belong to which includes 27 genera with 184 MATERIALS AND METHODS species, and which is considered the most important family in this orderthat 27 (Matsuura 2015). Porcupinefsh Study area descripton of the family Diodontdae includes 19 species of six genera The specimens of puferfsh and porcupinefsh were (Nelson et al. 2016). Some members of the puferfsh collected from fve major fsh landing centres such as and porcupinefsh have commercial value in the food Royapuram (Staton I) (13.1240N & 80.2970E), Cuddalore industry and in the aquarium trade (Fiedler 1991). The (Staton II) (11.7160N & 79.7750E), Nagapatnam indeterminate consistency of body and loose skin are (Staton III) (10.7550N & 79.8490E), Mandapam (Staton the great taxonomic features in genera such as Arothron, IV) (9.2760N & 79.1510E), and Kanyakumari (Staton V) Chelonodon, Lagocephalus, Takifugu, and Torquigener. (8.07810N & 77.5510E) located along the Tamil Nadu coast Many species have not been studied taxonomically in of southeastern India (Fig. 1). The specimens were caught detail by using morphological and meristc characters by large fshing boats and small fbre boats with gill nets to classify them into appropriate groups (Randall 1985). and trawl nets gear; trawl nets were the main method for The detailed counts and measurements were provided collectng puferfsh and porcupinefsh. for freshwater puferfsh of Tetraodon by Dekkers (1975), marine puferfsh of Canthigaster by Allen & Randall Sample collecton and preservaton (1977), Lagocephalus by Matsuura (2010) & Matsuura et The sample collectons were carried out for a period of al. (2011), and Torquigener by Hardy (1982a,b, 1983a,b, two years from
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