Quantification of morphological variability among species of family Cynoglossidae from Indian waters

Abstract

The morphometric and meristic studies of flatfishes belonging to the family Cynoglossidae collected from various parts of the Indian coast were studied. Fourteen species of Cynoglossids belonging to two genera, Cynoglossus and Paraplagusia, were obtained from commercial landings of fishing trawlers in coastal waters from August 2013 to May 2014. A distance matrix was created using the Euclidian method to show their differences based on their characters. Based on these characters, hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward's Minimum-Variance Method) was used to establish a relationship among genera and species of the family Cynoglossidae. A field-level identification key for the species of the family Cynoglossidae in Indian waters is also proposed.