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Vertebral Anomalies in Common goby Pomatoschistus microps (Gobiidae) Collected from Localities Around the British Isles

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Abstract

Several incidences of skeletal deformities, ranging from 0.83 to 11.18%, were observed in specimens of common goby Pomatoschistus microps collected from 11 shore localities around the British Isles during the period November 1975–July 1977. There is a large variation in the percentage of vertebral abnormalities among the individuals of P. microps across the localities. It is important to document the vertebral anomalies in P. microps from the British Isles, because no such report has been published, although the observations date back 40 years. The possible role of pollution in the localities studied is discussed.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is grateful to Peter Miller, University of Bristol, UK for his supervision of this work as a part of the M.Sc. thesis of the author, to James MacLaine, Natural History Museum, London for providing the radiograph of the normal specimen of P. microps and to Kristiaan Hoedemakers, Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Brussels for reading the manuscript.

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    L. A. Jawad

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Jawad, L.A. Vertebral Anomalies in Common goby Pomatoschistus microps (Gobiidae) Collected from Localities Around the British Isles. J. Ichthyol. 58, 558–562 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032945218040057

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