Identification of five Pampus species from the coast of China based on sagittal otolith morphology analysis

Sagittal otoliths morphology were compared to identify five Pampus species of the Chinese coast (Chinese pomfret Pampus chinensis, grey pomfret P. cinereus, southern lesser pomfret P. minor, plumage pomfret P. punctatissmus, and Pampus sp.). Otoliths demonstrated species-specific characteristics with noticeable differences in overall shape, margin and anterior region among species. With species divergence, otoliths get thinner following further developed rostrum and anti-rostrum. Interspecies variation in otolith could associate with experienced different temperature and water column. The discriminant analysis presented a high classification accuracy of 96.6%, which confirms the inter-specific distinction of otolith shape and enable the species identification.