1998/12/01 by R. S. Ogden, A. Louise Allcock, P. C. Wats +1 · 3 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Cephalopods and Marine Biology #Marine and fisheries research #Genetic diversity and population structure
paper · pdf · doi:10.2989/025776198784126476
openalex publication_date 1998/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
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.