Gender, Age, and Seasonal Variation in Scale Characteristics of Alburnus sellal Heckel, 1843 from the Tigris River (Turkey) a Geometric Morphometric Study

In this study, 37 female and 40 male Alburnus sellal individuals from the Tigris River were analyzed. Using geometric morphometrics, significant differences in scale size between sexes were found, but none in shape. Seasonal and age groups showed significant differences in both size and shape, with females and autumn individuals having larger scales. Scale size increased with age. PCA showed variation across age, season, and sex, while CVA and DFA revealed shape differences between age and seasonal groups, but not between sexes.