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Osteological Characters to Define Six Species of the Capoeta damascina Species Complex (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae)

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Abstract

This paper presents the results of a comparative study of eight osteological characters: the counts, dimension and regionalization of the vertebral column, the pattern of interdigitation of the dorsal- and anal-fin pterygiophores with the neural and haemal spines of the vertebrae, the distribution of the dorsal- and ventral-procurrent caudal-fin rays, the distribution of the principal caudal-fin rays, and the morphology of the caudal-fin skeleton of six species of the Capoeta damascina complex (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae). Potential taxonomically valuable osteological characters are described and used to separate the six species of Capoeta studied. Formulae for the structure of the vertebral column, the dorsal- and anal-fin pterygiophores’ interdigitation with the neural and haemal spines of the vertebrae, the distribution of the dorsal and ventral procurrent caudal-fin rays, and the distribution of the principal caudal-fin rays are developed. These morphological descriptive parameters express a morphotype that may be linked with the cypriniform mode of swimming of the Capoeta species investigated. The morphological study of the vertebral column of six species of the Capoeta damascina complex enables the division of this bony structure into five or six morphologically distinct regions, depending on the species, and the drawing of characteristic vertebral profiles. This regionalization is more complicated than the classical division in abdominal and caudal parts only.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pokeno, 2471, Auckland, New Zealand

    L. A. Jawad

  2. Senckenberg Research Institute and Museum of Nature, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    N. Alwan

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Correspondence to L. A. Jawad.

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The authors benefited from a SYNTHESYS Project, financed by the European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP6 “Structuring the European Research Area” Programme, which allowed us to visit the Natural History Museums in London and Paris and to acquire the radiographs. Many thanks are also expressed to the authorities and technicians at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, American University of Beirut (Natural History) Museum, Collection of the Biology Department of Shiraz University, and to Dr. Jörg Freyhof from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries for all the facilities offered during this work. Our sincere thanks are due to Kristiaan Hoedemakers, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Vautierstraat, Brussels, Belgium for reading the manuscript.

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Jawad, L.A., Alwan, N. Osteological Characters to Define Six Species of the Capoeta damascina Species Complex (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae). J. Ichthyol. 60, 182–203 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032945220020071

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