Morphologic, morphometric and contour shape variations of sagittal otoliths of Lepidorhombus spp. in the Aegean Sea.

Otoliths are calcareous anatomical structures in the inner ear of fishes, and they can be used in the discrimination of fish species and stocks due to their species-specific shape. Sagittal otoliths in the Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis and Lepidorhombus boscii, two flatfish species of the same genus distributed in the Aegean Sea, were compared using morphology, morphometry and contour shape analyses. Blind and eyed side otoliths of Lepidorhombus species were evaluated separately due to their morphological features and statistical differences in morphometric measurements (p < 0.05). Four analysis groups were formed: blind side otolith of L. whiffiagonis, eyed side otolith of L. whiffiagonis, blind side otolith of L. boscii and eyed side otolith of L. boscii. Morphometric differences in otolith shape were performed by canonical discriminant analysis, and the first discriminant axis explained 97.4% (Wilks λ = 0.270) of the variance between the groups, and the second axis explained 2.3% (Wilks λ = 0.620). Classification success between Lepidorhombus species based on CDA is 100%, and the overall CDA classification score between groups is 76.5%. The wavelet functions obtained in the contour analysis showed high variability in the anterior, posterior-dorsal, antero-dorsal and ventral regions of the otoliths among these four analysis groups. Consequently, it is thought that this study will contribute to the taxonomic classification of fish with the morphological and morphometric differences in the blind and eyed side otoliths and the analyses made with the high discrimination success obtained in Lepidorhombus species.