Resumen

PARDO, R.; SCOTT, S.  y  VILA, I.. SHAPE ANALYSIS IN CHILEAN SPECIES OF TRICHOMYCTERUS (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes) USING GEOMETRIC MORPHOMETRY. Gayana (Concepc.) [online]. 2005, vol.69, n.1, pp. 180-183. ISSN 0717-6538.  doi: 10.4067/S0717-65382005000100023.

The genus Trichomycterus includes nearly 120 species that generally inhabits at the neotropical river headwaters. In Chile this genus has a wide distribution: T. chungaraensis, T. laucaensis and T. rivulatus live at the altiplano, while T. areolatus distributes from the III to the X chilean regions with the wider extension living in simpatry with T. chiltoni in Biobio basin. The habitat diversities colonized by this genus would have driven morphological changes that were analyzed by geometric morphology.Seven type I and II landmarks were fixed, and a superposition was done by GPA (General Procruster Analysis). To describe relations between species RWA (Relative warps Analysis) was used, in which the first two RW explain 67, 22% and a UPGMA was performed. A strong relationship between T. chungaraensis, T. laucaensis and T. rivulatus was found; being different from T. areolatus and T. chiltoni which were similar. These form relationship would be associated with geographic species distributions that correspond to Titicaca and Chilean provinces respectively

Palabras clave : Ichthyogeographic Provinces; landmarks; Relative Warp; Chile.