Studying morphological differences of sagittal otolith using geometric morphometric in two species of gobiidae Bathygobius meggitti (Hora and Mukeriji, 1936) and Istigobius ornatus (Ruppell, 183) in Makran coast, Oman Sea

This study aims to investigate the morphological variety using morphological differences of otolith in two species of Bathygobius meggitti and Istigobius ornatus from gobiidae family and their populations in Makran coast, Southeast of Iran. In order to do this, 56 samples of goby were caught and collected from three stations of Tis, Lipar, and Big Sea during spring and summer of 2018. Right and left otoliths of species were taken out. Four landmark points on the maximum length and width of otolith growth and 128 semi-landmark points around otoliths were digitized using professional software of geometric morphology, and R software was used to analyze them statistically. Results of analyzing semi-landmarks and real landmarks showed a significant intra-species and intra-population difference. The highest difference was observed in Tis population for both species, B.meggitti and I.ornatus. There was significant intra-species difference between two populations of Tis and Big Sea for B. meggitti species and a significant difference was observed between two populations of I. ornatus species in Tis and Big Seda. In addition, results of landmark analysis showed there was significant Intra- and inter-species difference in the size of otolith growth zone. Such information can improve our knowledge about the phylogeny and taxonomy of these species and help us to know the biodiversity.