Morphological variation in populations of Tetragonopterus argenteus Cuvier, 1817 (Characiformes, Characidae) from Madeira and Paraguay river basins

Abstract

The saua Tetragonopterus argenteus is endemic to South America. It has a wide geographic distribution and occurs in different Brazilian basins, such as those of the Madeira and Paraguay rivers. In this work, it was noticed that populations from these basins have morphological variations between them, indicating a possible geographic isolation. Specimens were studied using twelve morphological characters that were submitted to the canonical variates and body proportion analysis. In the canonical variate analysis, the populations from the Madeira and Paraguay river basins were differentiated by caudal peduncle depth, eye diameter, pre-ventral distance, body height, snout length and head length. In the body proportion analysis, the population of Madeira river basin presented head length, orbital diameter, pre-dorsal distance, dorsal-fin length, pre-ventral distance, body height and caudal peduncle height, smaller than those of the population from Paraguay river basin. These results allowed the recognition of intra-specific variation amplitude, that could become an important instrument for management and conservation of this species.