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Species Identification and Morphological Characteristics of Croakers from
Miri, Sarawak
Nur Farhana Binti Zakaria
Supervisor: Dr. Seah Ying Giat
Bachelor of Applied Science (Fisheries)
School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences
This study was conducted to identify the croaker species and examined the
morphological characteristics. Samples were collected from Miri, Sarawak; and 12
species from eight genera of Pennahia, Nibea, Dendrophysa, Chrysochir, Otolithes,
Panna, Protonibea and Johnius were identified. Morphometric measurements and
meristic counts involving 28 parameters were used to examine the differences among
the species. The data were analysed by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA),
which can reduce the dimensionality of multivariate data sets and searching the
covariation patterns among the original variables. Overall, the PCA suggested that
second anal spine length (PCI, 0.550) and lower jaw length (PCII, 0.427) were good
parameters to differentiate the 12 species respectively. However, there were two
overlapped species detected which are Johnius cf. carouna and Johnius sp. But, both
species can be differentiated though preanal length (PCI, 0.457) and first anal fin ray
length (PCII, 0.649).
622 | UMT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH DAY 2018