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Molecular and Morphological Identification of Ophichthid Leptocephali from the South Sea of Korea  

Ji, Hwan-Sung (Department of Marine Biology, Pukyong National University)
Kim, Jin-Koo (Department of Marine Biology, Pukyong National University)
Publication Information
Korean Journal of Ichthyology / v.22, no.4, 2010 , pp. 279-284 More about this Journal
Abstract
Four leptocephali (TL 109.8~129.7 mm) of the family Ophichthidae, collected from Sangju in the South Sea of Korea, were identified using morphological and molecular methods. Our four leptocephali were similar to Ophichthus sp. based on morphological characters: the melanophores present in series of eight gut swellings; total myomeres 144~151; body depth in total length less than 10%; eight or nine black horizontal bands present from anus to caudal fin base. On the other hand, our four leptocephali were identified to Pisodonophis sp. based on 826 base pairs of 12S rRNA gene nucleotide sequences. Our results showed that morphology-based identification did not agree with molecular identification, indicating difficulty in differentiating morphologically between Ophichthus and Pisodonophis leptocephali. We, herein, firstly describe morphological characteristics of Pisodonophis sp. leptocephali from Korea.
Keywords
Leptocephali; Ophichthidae; 12S rRNA; Pisodonophis sp.; identification;
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