Manuscript 1 Identifying sagittae otoliths of Mediterranean Sea gobies: 2 variability among phylogenetic lineages 3 4 5 A. LOMBARTE *† , M. MILETIĆ ‡, M. KOVAČIĆ §, J. L. OTERO -F ERRER ∏ AND V. M. TUSET * 6 7 *Institut de Ciències del Mar-CSIC, Passeig Marítim 37-48, 08003, Barcelona, Catalonia, 8 Spain, 9 ‡ Energy Institute Hrvoje Pozar, Savska cesta 163, 10001 Zagreb, Croatia, 10 §Natural History Museum Rijeka, Lorenzov prolaz 1HR-51000, Rijeka, Croatia, 11 ∏Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Ecoloxía e Bioloxía Animal, Campus Universitario 12 de Vigo, Fonte das Ab elleiras, s/n 36310, Vigo, Gali za, Spain 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 †Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: +34 932309564; email: 25
[email protected] 1 26 Gobiidae is the most species rich teleost family in the Mediterranean Sea, where this family is 27 characterized by high taxonomic complexity. Gobies are also an important but often- 28 underestimated part of coastal marine food webs. In this study, we describe and analyse the 29 morphology of the sagittae, the largest otoliths, of 25 species inhabiting the Adriatic and 30 northwestern Mediterranean seas. Our goal was to test the usefulness and efficiency of 31 sagittae otoliths for species identification. Our analysis of otolith contours was based on 32 mathematical descriptors called wavelets, which are related to multi-scale decompositions of 33 contours. Two methods of classification were used: an iterative system based on 10 wavelets 34 that searches the Anàlisi de Formes d'Otòlits (AFORO) database, and a discriminant method 35 based only on the fifth wavelet.