Geometric analysis of the scale shape to discriminate different populations of Garra rufa Heckel, 1843

Garra rufa is one of the 73 Garra species of the family Cyprinidae. Scales are used more commonly than any other structure in population dynamic studies, because of their transparency, ease of sampling, and the minimal in-juries caused to the fish during their removal. To discriminate fish from different rivers including Bashar, Behbahan, Gerdab, Kheirabad, Kooshk-e-Bahram, Mazoo, Palangan, Sendegan, Shoor-Abad, and Sirvan Rivers using geometric morphometric analyses of the scale shape, landmark based geometric morphometrics method was used. Seven landmark points were depicted on each scale using the software TpsDig2. After procrustes analyses, landmark data were exposed to principle component analysis (PCA), CVA, and cluster analyses using the past software. The results showed that th-ere were significant scale shape differences among some populations, but most of the samples showed overlapping sh-ape distribution and could not be separated robustly. Among the samples which were analyzed, only the Sendegan and Gerdab river samples did not show significant difference in scale shape compared to all other samples.