The significance of osteology in identification of Schizothorax species

Abstract

Osteology is one of the important taxonomic characters for identification and classification of the fishes. In present study, 40 specimens of Schizothorax richardsonii (Gray) were divided into 4 groups based upon the standard length (SL) to determine vertebral count and position of different fins. The test of significance for correlation ‘r’ was employed. The various skeletal structures of Schizothorax richardsonii (Gray) studied in detail and were compared with other Schizothoracid fishes. It has been found that the osteological characters play very important role in identification of Schizothoracid fishes at specific as well as generic level.