Main Article Content

The role of beak shape in octopodid taxonomy


RS Ogden
AL Allcock
PC Watts
JP Thorpe

Abstract

Beak shapes in nine species of Southern Ocean octopodids were measured using seven size-standardized ratios. The results were analysed using principal component analysis and discriminant function analysis and show
that beak shape may be used as a taxonomic character to distinguish between genera, but not between species. Stepwise discriminant function analysis indicated that all seven ratios were required to maximize discrimination between beaks. A phenogram constructed from a matrix of Mahalanobis distances differed from a dendrogram produced from genetic data. This suggests that, although useful for discrimination, beak morphology is probably not suitable for constructing phylogenies.

Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 1814-2338
print ISSN: 1814-232X