Morphological variations and diagnostic characters of Chondrostoma regium populations in Iranian inland waters

In this study, morphological variations of 162 specimens of Chondrostoma regium (Heckel, 1843) collected from the Beheshtabad, Shalmzar, Karoun, Gandman, Sheikh Ali Khan (Chaharmahal-e Bakhtiari Province), Tof Sefid and Seimareh (Isfahan Province), Khersan, Beshar (Kohgoluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province), Dinevarab, Alvand (Kermanshah Province), Homeil (Ilam Province), Doab, Kafraj (Lorestan Province) and Zab (Kurdistan Province) were analyzed. A total of 27 morphometric and 11 meristic characters were assessed. To study the morphological variations between the studied populations, morphometric and meristic characters were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis analyses, principal component analysis (PCA), and Multivariate analysis of variance and canonical variates analysis (MANOVA/CVA). The results showed that 20 morphometric and 10 meristic characters have significant differences (P<0.05). Among the morphometric characters, the first two components showed 55% of the variety between the individuals. CVA analysis of morphometric characters showed that the populations have a great overlapping and only the Zab population was separated from the others, wheras in the meristic characters, most of the populations were separated from each other. Based on the results, the studied populations of Brond-snout fish, they show significant morphological differences and in this species, meristic characters have a higher discriminability than morphometric characters.