population differential identification using morphometric and meristic characters of bartail flathead, platycephalusindicus(linnaeus, 1758) in the iranian coasts of the persian gulf

this study was designed to evaluate population variation and differentiation of bartail flathead, platycephalusindicus (linnaeus, 1785)in the iranian waters of the persian gulf using the morphometric and meristic characters. a total of 180 fish were collected by gill net from six stations (khormosa, bahrekan, shif, motaf, charak and bandar abbas) of iranian coasts of persian gulf including 30 fish from each station. 28 morphometric and 11meristic characteristics were measured. morphometric factors was standardized with beacham formula before measurement univariate analysis of variance (one-way anova) revealed significant differences between the means of 21 standardized morphometric measurements and 6 meristic counts that showed high significant differences between the six sampling stations. discriminant function analysis (dfa) or the overall random assignment of individuals into their original groups was for morphometric and meristic characters were 47.9% and 53.9%, respectively.plotting discriminant functions 1 and 2 and upgmadendrogram also showed morphometric and meristic characters the amount ofdiscrimination was low and the samples of six stations showed a high overlap.