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

伊朗是Aphanius多样性的热点。迄今为止，已描述了五种特有种，很可能在该地区还有其他特有种。虽然物种被认为是非常相似，甚至相同的外部形态，它们可以区分的基础上的分子数据。然而，其中四个物种的耳石至今尚未被研究。该项目的重点问题是，耳石形态是否可以作为一种新的“工具”，用于区分来自伊朗的特有Aphanius物种。151 Aphanius标本可用于此项目。耳石形态将采用申请人和共同作者最近引入的一种新的定性和定量相结合的方法进行分析。如果我们成功地记录了耳石代表诊断可靠的形态特征，我们将有助于识别新的，稀有的和/或濒危的Apanius物种及其地理分布。我们希望，结果可以转移到其他鱼类的家庭，即耳石形态-如果诊断可靠的地方性Aphanius物种-随后也可以用于其他物种的歧视，缺乏区别的外部形态特征到目前为止。此外，我们将大大增加价值的耳石从淡水鱼类作为古生物学的数据来源，可用于古地理分析的河流和湖泊系统。

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.