MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES OF ACIPENSER BAERII, ACIPENSER SCHRENCKII AND THEIR HYBRIDS (A. BAERII♀× A. SCHRENCKII♂)

In order to identify the morphological differences and discrimination of Acipenser baerii and Acipenser schrenckii, the hybrids of A. baerii♀× A. schrenckii♂ were analyzed by morphological and multivariate morphometric methods. There were significant differences in the number of gill rakes and dorsal fins among the countable traits of A. baerii, A. schrenckii and their hybrids. The multiple comparative analysis of the countable traits showed that the eye spacing/full length of A. baerii and A. schrenckii was significantly longer than that of their hybrids. The three principal components were extracted by principal component analysis, and the cumulative contribution rate to variation was 65.68%. The discriminant formulas for A. baerii, A. schrenckii and their hybrids were constructed by discriminant analysis, and the overall accuracy of the discriminant formulas was 85.6%. The results revealed that the morphological differences among A. baerii, A. schrenckii and their hybrids were mainly reflected in the head and tail stalk.