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Morphometric relationships and relative growth of Hexaplex trunculus and Bolinus brandaris (Gastropoda: Muricidae) from the Ria Formosa lagoon (southern Portugal)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2015
Abstract
The present study reports morphometric relationships and discusses the relative growth in the banded murex (Hexaplex trunculus) and the purple dye murex (Bolinus brandaris) from the Ria Formosa lagoon (southern Portugal). A total of 11 morphometric parameters (eight linear variables: shell length, shell width, total aperture length, aperture length, aperture width, spire length, spire width and siphonal canal length; three ponderal variables: total weight, soft parts weight and shell weight) were analysed in both species. The analyses comprised numerous individuals of both sexes and with broad size ranges (H. trunculus: 10.7–82.8 mm shell length; B. brandaris: 14.6–107.7 mm shell length), fairly representative of the populations from the Ria Formosa lagoon. In general, B. brandaris exhibited greater morphological plasticity and higher variability in shell shape compared with H. trunculus. In both species, the vast majority of morphometric relationships displayed positive allometries, distantly followed by negative allometries and by isometries. Although H. trunculus and B. brandaris are known to lack external sexual dimorphism, several morphometric relationships revealed significant differences in the type of growth between sexes, which should be further confirmed using more powerful techniques, such as geometric morphometric analyses of shell shape.
Keywords
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 96 , Issue 7 , November 2016 , pp. 1417 - 1425
- Copyright
- Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2015
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