Otolith morphology of inland Aphanius (Teleostei, Cyprinodontidae) from Iran - a new "tool" for the discrimination of endemic species?

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Iran is a hot spot of Aphanius diversity. Five endemic species have been described to date, and it is very likely that additional endemic species occur in this region. Although the species are considered as very similar or even identical with regard to external morphology, they can be discriminated based on molecular data. However, the otoliths of four of these species have not been studied up to date. The project focuses on the question as to whether otolith morphology can be established as a new “tool” for the discrimination of the endemic Aphanius species from Iran. 151 Aphanius specimens are available for this project. Otolith morphology will be analyzed with a new combined qualitativequantitative method that was recently introduced by the applicant and co-authors. If we are successful in documenting that the otoliths represent diagnostically reliable morphological features, we would facilitate the identification of new, rare, and/or endangered Aphanius species and their geographic distribution. We expect that the results can be transferred to other fish families, i.e. that otolith morphology – if diagnostically reliable for the endemic Aphanius species - can subsequently also be used for the discrimination of other species that lack distinguishing external morphological characters so far. Furthermore, we would considerably increase the value of otoliths from freshwater fishes as a palaeontological source of data that can be used in palaeogeographic analyses of river and lake systems.