Morphometric characteristics of males and females of Pharaoh cuttlefish, Acanthosepion pharaonis (Ehrenberg, 1831), caught in Hormozgan waters (Northern Persian Gulf)

Document Type : scientific research article

Authors

1 Fisheries Department (Marine), Faculty of Marine Science and Technology, University of Hormozgan, Bandar Abbas, Iran

2 Persian Gulf and Oman Sea Ecological Research Center

Abstract

This investigation aimed to quantify the relationship between dorsal-mantle length and body mass, while also evaluating the morphometric attributes of the cuttlebone and beak of the Pharaoh cuttlefish captured in Hormozgan coastal waters. A total of 109 specimens (76 males and 33 females) were collected from two distinct fishing gears (gargoor and trawl) during a sampling period extending from September 2023 to March 2024. The characteristics, including dorsal-mantle length (DML), body weight, cuttlebone length, size of the smooth and striated sections, count of lamellas, upper and lower rostral lengths of beak (URL, LRL), upper and lower hood lengths (UHL, LHL), upper and lower crest lengths (UCL, LCL), upper and lower wing lengths (UWL, LWL), and upper and lower wing widths (UWW, LWW) were meticulously measured in the laboratory. DML's minimum, maximum, and mean (±SD) values were recorded as 62, 330, and 135.4±37.1 mm for males, and 57, 300, and 104.4±54.2 mm for females. The length-weight relationships were established as W=0.0007DML².616 for males and W=0.0017DML².446 for females, with significant differences observed between the sexes (ANCOVA, P<0.05). All selected variables associated with cuttlebones exhibited a strong positive correlation across both genders (Spearman's correlation coefficient, P<0.01). Furthermore, the multivariate analyses, including nMDS and ANOSIM tests, showed that the morphology of the beak is strikingly analogous between males and females.

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Journal of Utilization and Cultivation of Aquatics
Volume 14, Issue 4
February 2026
Pages 19-37

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