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Geographic Morphometric Variations of Freshwater Murrel, Channa punctatus from Northern and Eastern Parts of India

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Abstract

Significant variations in the multivariate morphometric analysis were observed in the sub-populations of freshwater murrel, Channa punctatus from two habitats characterized by different environmental conditions. A linear relationship was noted between different body measurements and total length of the fish in both the environments. The 14 morphometric parameters found to be significant (p < 0.05) in univariate (one way ANOVA) analysis were further subjected to multivariate analysis using principal component and discriminant function analysis. Principal component analysis indicated shape variation and accounted for 76 % of the total variance. In discriminant function analysis of the significantly different morphometric parameters, 96.9 % of cross-validated grouped cases were correctly classified and the sub-populations were discriminated. Parameters like dorsal fin length, snout length, inter-orbital length, pre-anal length, head length, pre-dorsal length and pre pectoral length were mainly responsible for variations and discrimination between the sub-populations in the discriminant function analysis. The fish from the two environments also deviated from the so called cube law which indicated the different growth rate in length-weight relationship study. Significant divergence in morphometric analysis revealed that intraspecific variations existed between the two sub-populations of C. punctatus. Therefore, these findings indicate the presence of two different stocks of C. punctatus.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Head, Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow for providing laboratory facilities and one of the author is thankful to the Department of Science and Technology (DST-PURSE) for providing him fellowship. There is no conflict of interest between the authors on this publication.

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  1. Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, 226007, UP, India

    Ankur Kashyap, Madhu Awasthi & M. Serajuddin

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  1. Ankur Kashyap
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  2. Madhu Awasthi
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  3. M. Serajuddin
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Correspondence to M. Serajuddin.

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Kashyap, A., Awasthi, M. & Serajuddin, M. Geographic Morphometric Variations of Freshwater Murrel, Channa punctatus from Northern and Eastern Parts of India. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., India, Sect. B Biol. Sci. 86, 367–373 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40011-014-0451-3

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