Morphology and Morphometry Based Taxonomy of Mugilidae

Abstract

Members of the family Mugilidae, generally known as mullets, are coastal marine fi shes with a worldwide distribution including all temperate, subtropical and tropical seas. They not only inhabit offshore and coastal waters, but also depending on the species, spend part or even their whole life cycle in coastal lagoons, lakes and/or rivers. A considerable period of time has passed since the last book was published on Mugilidae (Oren 1981). Many important and critical changes related to the taxonomy and systematics of this family have taken place since this last publication. We may perhaps be in the ‘middle of a revolution’, with regard to the phylogeny and taxonomy of mullets. New and more effi cient methodologies have developed in the past few decades, which improve the accurate discrimination of taxa; for example the sequencing of mitochondrial and/or nuclear genes (molecular taxonomy) and the geometric morphometrics (a relatively novel discipline which is based on the use of anatomical landmarks in order to evaluate differences in the shape of organisms). As could be expected, as a consequence of the application of these new techniques, new results have been obtained on Mugilidae, such as the appearance of cryptic species, but also confl icts have arisen at the generic and even subfamily levels. Table 1.1 summarizes the nominal genera of Mugilidae, in chronological order of appearance, with their status according to different authors. Much more work has to be done in order to clarify and consolidate the taxonomy and systematics of Mugilidae. Hence, the aim of this chapter is to review and discuss the present status of mugilid taxonomy around the world, and also to show both the traditional and new tools that can be employed to identify/ discriminate these fishes.