Gangetic Fish Otoliths

by Khan, Salman & Mohammad Afzal Khan

ISBN: 9789354618895
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Imprint : Daya Publishing House
Year : 2024
Price : Rs. 2995.00
Biblio : xiv+83p., tbles., figs., ind 25 cm

Author Profile

Dr. Salman Khan is currently working as an Assistant Professor, School of Life Science and Technology, IIMT University, Meerut. He was awarded his Ph.D. degree under the supervision of Professor M. Afzal Khan, Laboratory of Fish Biology and Otolith Research, Department of Zoology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. He is a dedicated researcher with a good number of national and international publications. He has participated in various national as well as international Conferences/Symposia/Workshops and received Best Paper Award for his presentations thrice at different conferences. One of his recent otolith research appeared in Scientific Reports which belongs to the reputed "Nature group of journals". He is not only an excellent researcher but a very good communicator of science. He recently won first prize in an international competition in Australia and was conferred the "Science Communication Award-2017" at a special conference organized by Australian Society of Fish Biology at Albany, Australia. Throughout his research career, Salman has received funding from CST-UP. as Research Assistant, UGC Non-NET fellowship and CSIR-Direct SRF. Salman's research focuses mainly on developing the precise and scientifically sound protocols for age and growth estimation, and stock delineation in commercially important freshwater fishes. He shows great deal of interest in exploring otoliths and working on its applications in devising the strategies for management, diversity and conservation of natural fish populations. Dr. M. Afzal Khan is currently working as a Professor at Department of Zoology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Prof. Khan is heading a very dynamic research group working on biology of freshwater teleosts, their population dynamics and natural resource management. His notable research contributions are on identifying species-specific structure(s) for precise fish age estimation; to decipher species-specific growth parameters, and to delineate stock(s) of freshwater teleosts mainly from the Gangetic river system. Prof. Khan is known for his pioneering research contributions in India on precise age estimation in fishes and use of otoliths for fish stock delineation. He has also worked on fossil otoliths to decipher the probable biological information at Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany. He along with one of his students and first author of this book, Salman Khan, has developed an indigenous, efficient and highly economical "Otolith polisher" that is currently installed at his laboratory. Prof. Khan's laboratory received research projects from various funding agencies such as UGC, DST-SERB and CST-UP. His research findings appear mostly in SCI indexed and impact factor journals published from Nature Publishing Group, Elsevier Science, Wiley-Blackwell, Blackwell-Verlag, Wiley Inc., CSIRO publishing, EDP Sciences, Taylor and Francis, Springer, etc.

About The Book

In view of the increasing global interest in the studies related to the fish otoliths for various purposes such as academics, research and fisheries resource management, this book provides useful information on otoliths from the Gangetic fishes. This book consists of photographs and descriptions of the otoliths of 51 species belonging to 17 families viz., Channidae, Gobiidae, Nandidae, Ambassidae, Schilbeidae, Clariidae, Sisoridae, Heteropneustidae, Bagridae, Siluridae, Cobitidae, Mastacembelidae, Belonidae, Clupeidae, Notopteridae, Mugilidae, Cyprinidae, which are distributed in eight orders. As of now, there is no such publication in the available literature. The Gangetic river system harbours many fish species which are commonly found in many other Asian countries such as Carps (Indian Major Carps), Mystus sp., Sperata sp., Channa sp., etc. However, studies on freshwater fish otoliths from Asian countries especially the Indian sub-continent are scanty. Thus, we do believe that information on otoliths of common freshwater fishes may be of great interest and use not only to students, academicians and researchers but also to fishery managers. On account of being metabolically inert, acellular and growing proportionately to the indeterminate growth pattern of the fish body, the otoliths offer several useful applications in natural resource management of fish populations based on their morphological, morphometrics and chemical characteristics. Some of the popular applications of otoliths are in deciphering fish stocks, identification of breeding, nursing and feeding grounds, and fish habitat reconstruction. Also, feeding habitats of aquatic piscivores may be studied using otoliths.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii Foreword ix Preface xi 1. Introduction 1 Otolith Location and Function 3 Otolith Composition 5 Otolith Morphology 7 Definition and Description about Otolith Morphology 8 2. Materials and Methods 9 3. Fish and Otolith Description 11 References 69 Appendix 77 Index 81