A new species of tooth-carp, Aphanius arakensissp. n., is described from the Namak Lake basin in Iran. The new species is distinguished by the congeners distributed in Iran by the following combination of characters: 10-12 anal fin rays, 28-32 lateral line scales, 10-13 caudal peduncle scales, 8-10 gill rakers, 12-19, commonly 15-16, clearly defined flank bars in males, a more prominent pigment...

In the present investigation a total of six parasite species, some eye-specific and others non-organ specific parasites were found in the eyes of 48 examined fish species, collected from fresh and brackish waters of Iran during 2004-2006. Ichthyophthirius multifiliis  was isolated from the external surface of the eyes of Oncorhynchus mykiss, Gyrodactylus stankovici from Cyprinus carpio and Lern...

Phylogenetic relationships of a subset of Aphanius fish comprising central Anatolia, Turkey, are investigated to test the hypothesis of geographic speciation driven by early Pliocene orogenic events in spite of morphological similarity. We use 3434 aligned base pairs of mitochondrial DNA from 42 samples representing 36 populations of three species and six outgroup species to test this hypothesi...

Systematic assignment of fossil otoliths is virtually always based on studies of otolith morphology and subsequent comparisons with otoliths from collections and/or literature. Although this usually represents a practical method, comparisons and subsequent evaluation may be biased by subjective criteria used in the individual descriptions. Quantitative morphometric studies focusing on variation...

Aphanius marassantensis, new species, is described from the Kızılırmak River drainage in northern Anatolia based on colouration, meristic and morphometric characters, and the mtDNA COI barcode region. It is distinguished from other Anatolian Aphanius by one or several of the following characters: a stout body shape (BD/SL 28.2-39.6%), complete scale cover, and 25-28 scales along the lateral lin...

The wrinkle layer is a dorsal shell structure occurring in a number of ammonoids, but its function is still debated. Here, we describe, from Moroccan material of the Early Carboniferous species Maxigoniatites saourensis (Pareyn, 1961), the most conspicuous wrinkle layer known within the Ammonoidea. This additional shell layer occurs in the ventrolateral portion of the adult body chamber and for...