A comparative study of the morphology of sagittal otolith in Coilia nasus,Coilia mystus and Coilia nasus taihuensis

A study using a truss network of 12 distance measurements was carried out on the intra-/inter-species morphological characteristics of the sagittal otolith in Coilia mystus(the Chongming Island),Coilia nasus taihuen-sis(the Yellow Sea),and Coilia nasus(the Oujiang Estuary).The results suggested that much more significant inter-species differences were observed than those of intra-species.Discriminant function analysis allowed correct classification rate of 100%,94%,100% for C.mystus vs.C.nasus,C.nasus vs.C.nasus taihuensis,and C.mystus vs.C.nasus taihuensis,respectively.In contrast,those only reached 56%-83% among C.nasus from the waters of Chongming Island,Yellow Sea,and Oujiang Estuary.The otolith morphological characteristics in C.nasus from the former two waters were more similar.Furthermore,the possible influential factors for otolith morphology of these Coilia fishes were also discussed in the present study.