Authors : Mevlut Aktas , Cemal Turan and Ahmet Bozkurt
Abstract: The pattern of taxonomic relationships and morphological divergence of three three species of shrimp, Penaeus semisulcatus, Metapenaeus monoceros and Melicertus kerathurus, collected from Iskenderun Bay, were investigated. A multivariate ANOVA using morphometric characters revealed highly significant inter-sample variation for most of the characters. In discriminant function analysis, the first discriminant function accounted for 77% and the second accounted for 23% of the between-group variability, showing clear between-species differentiation. Examination of the contribution of each variable to the first two discriminant functions showed high contributions from measurements 1_2, 4_5, 11_12, 8_11, 8_9, 4_15 in the first function, and 7_12, 3_16, 3_4, 12_13, 8_12 in the second function, indicating that these characters are key characters in discriminating between these species. The UPGMA cluster analysis produced two main clustering; Melicertus kerathurus was closest taxa to Penaeus semisulcatus being the sister group to the Metapenaeus monoceros which was the most divergent in this group. In the correct assignment of individuals into their original sample, the proportion of correctly classified the Metapenaeus monoceros to their original group was highest (92%), showing a clear separation from the other species.
Mevlut Aktas , Cemal Turan and Ahmet Bozkurt , 2006. Taxonomic Description of Three Shrimp Species (Melicertus kerathurus, Metapenaeus monoceros, Penaeus semisulcatus) Using Multivariate Morphometric Analyses. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 5: 172-175.