Comparative Analysis of the Structure of Differences between Some Morphotypes of Large African Barbs of Genus Barbus (Labeobarbus auctorum) from Lake Tana, Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract— It is shown that the phyletic relationships of the morphotypes of large African barbs Barbus (Labeobarbus auctorum) may be assessed by the results of a comparative analysis of the structure of morphological differences between them. At the same time, the structure of differences between two samples is characterized by the distribution of eigenvector loadings of characters on the principle component, according to which their most clear separation is revealed; and the similarity of the structure of differences between pairs of samples is assessed by comparing the structure of differences between samples in the first and second pairs. The hypothesis, according to which the phenetic hierarchy of morphotypes of large African barbs from Lake Tana arose as a result of independent branching of ontogenetic channels from the channel of the generalized form is confirmed. The similarity of the structure of differences between morphotypes is characterized by the similarity of eigenvector loadings in pairwise comparisons and the similarity of the location of characters ranked by the magnitude of their eigenvector loadings.