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Published on: July 20, 2017
Vertical habitat shift of viviparous and oviparous deep-sea cusk eels revealed by otolith microstructure and
N N Chang1, E Y Liu1, Y C Liao2
1Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Abstract:
Otolith stable-oxygen-isotope composition and microstructure were analysed in order to investigate the vertical habitat shift of deep-sea cusk eels (Ophidiiformes). Otolith δ18 O profiles suggested that both viviparous blind cusk eels and oviparous cusk eels experienced a pelagic larval stage and then settled to the deep-sea floor over a vertical distance that ranged among individuals from 200 to >1000 m. This result shows that the larvae of viviparous Barathronus maculatus undertake an ontogenetic vertical migration after a period of larval drift that may facilitate their wide distribution on the sea floor.
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