Gouws, Gavin; Kruger, Jerraleigh L; Smale, Malcolm; Henriques, Romina; Potts, Warren M: Morphometric and meristic dataset for the comparison of two species of sciaenid fishes, Atractoscion aequidens and Atractoscion macrolepis [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.973621 (dataset in review)

Morphometric data were collected and meristic counts taken from up to 33 museum-vouchered specimens of Atractoscion aequidens, sampled from South African coastal waters, and 52 specimens of Atractoscion macrolepis from Angolan coastal waters. The latter included museum-vouchered specimens and specimens collected in the field (but not retained in collections) during May and June 2009. Museum specimens were from the South African National Fish Collection housed at the National Research Foundation - South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity. Data were collected to investigate morphometric and meristic differences between the two species to confirm or refute the earlier description of A. macrolepis as a distinct species, and to examine characters that would allow the distinction of the two species, if valid. The earlier description of A. macrolepis was based on a limited number of specimens, and the proposed diagnostic character is unable to discriminate the species when considering a wider sample. The morphometric data set consisted of measurements for 24 variables, taken with rulers and tape measures for the larger measurements and digital calibers for the smaller measurements. Seven meristic counts were taken macroscopically. The full set of morphometric characters included standard length (SL), total length (TL), fork length (FL), body depth (BD), first dorsal fin length (1DFL), second dorsal fin length (2DFL), caudal peduncle length (CPL), upper caudal lobe length (UCLL), medial caudal length (MCL), lower caudal lobe length (LCLL), anal fin base length (AFB), anal fin length (AFL), pectoral fin base length (PFB), pectoral fin length (PFL), pelvic fin base length (PLFB), pelvic fin length (PLFL), pre-pelvic length (PPL), head length (HL), left dentary length (LDL), inter-orbital width (IOW), orbit diameter (OD), snout length (SNL), length of the longest gill filament (GFL) and length of the pectoral skin flap (PSF). The meristic counts included the number of first dorsal fin spines (1DS), the number of second dorsal fin spines (2DS), the number of second dorsal fin rays (2DR), the number of anal fin spines (AFS), the number of anal fin rays (AFR), the number of pectoral fin rays (P) and the number of pored lateral line scales (LL). Counts of the pored lateral line scales, taken using an earlier approach (Henriques et al. 2016), were also included (Original LL). Additional information includes the sampling locality and sex of the individual.

The table contains 24 morphometric measures and 8 meristic counts, along with metadata (species identifications, country of sampling, sampling locality and sex) for up to 33 individuals of Atractoscion aequidens and 52 specimens of Atractoscion macrolepis, sampled from South African and Angolan waters, respectively.