Faculty Publications

Morphological Evidence for the Occurrence of Two Electric Catfish (Malapterurus) Species in the White Nile and Omo-Turkana Systems

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Distribution, Electric catfish Malapterurus, Morphology, Nile, Omo-Turkana

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Fish Biology

Volume

55

Issue

3

First Page

492

Last Page

505

Abstract

Morphological analysis of 28 Malapterurus specimens collected from the Nile and Omo-Turkana basins revealed two groups. The first was characterized by low vertebral counts (41-44) and numerous gill rakers (14-22) situated along the entire first ceratobranchial, the second group was characterized by high vertebral counts (47-51) and a low number of gill rakers (6-13) situated only on the upper portion of the first ceratobranchial. Through comparison with the type specimens of three currently recognized Malapterurus species and comparison with museum collections from the Nile, Omo-Turkana, and Chad basins, these two groups were identified as M. electricus and M. minjiriya. A principal component analysis of 27 measurements allowed partial discrimination among species. Biogeographic aspects of finding M. minjiriya in the tributaries of the White Nile and in the middle reaches of the Omo River are discussed.

Department

Department of Biology

Original Publication Date

1-1-1999

DOI of published version

10.1006/jfbi.1999.1016

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