International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.19, 183-187
183
Research Report Open Access
First Records of Saddleback Syndrome and Pughead Deformities in the
Common Pandora
Pagellus erythrinus
(Linnaeus, 1758) (Teleostei: Sparidae)
from Wild Population in the Northern Aegean Sea, Turkey
Laith A. Jawad
1
, Okan Akyol
2
, İlker Aydin
2
1 Flat Bush, Manukau, Auckland 2016, New Zealand
2 Ege University Faculty of Fisheries, 35440 Urla, Izmir, Turkey
Corresponding email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No. 19 doi
Received: 25 Apr., 2017
Accepted: 23 May, 2017
Published: 01 Jun., 2017
Copyright © 2017
Jawad et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Jawad L.A., Akyol O., and Aydin İ., 2017, First records of saddleback syndrome and pughead deformities in the common pandora
Pagellus erythrinus
(Linnaeus, 1758) (Teleostei: Sparidae) from wild population in the northern Aegean Sea, Turkey, International Journal of Marine Science, 7(19): 183-187 (doi:
Abstract
The first record of the abnormalities, saddleback syndrome and pughead is reported from common pandor
ollected from the northern Aegean Sea, Turkey. Externally, the pughead specimen was with a short neurocranium, normal
jaws and mouth was closed. There are a significant osteological damages have been revealed by the radiograph of this deformed
specimen. The saddleback anomaly is located in the spinous part of the dorsal fin that showed a loss of 8 spines. In addition, few
scales of the lateral line were deformed. The radiograph image showed that the whole 8 spines and their supporting pterygiophores
were missing. These abnormalities have been considered as an important indicator of environmentally induced stress to the wild
fishes. Hence, the present finding highlights the need for closer monitoring of the marine environment and for the identification of
the specific factor that causes these abnormalities.
Keywords
Anomalies; Fin rays; Skull; Vertebral column; Environment
Introduction
Pughead deformity is an abnormal osteological condition that results in the aberration of the maxilla, premaxilla,
or infraorbital bones, with variable degrees of severity (Hickey, 1977). Pughead anomaly is an infrequent
occurrence in the wild, particularly in large estuarine systems (Berra and Au, 1981). Higher incidences of pughead
cases of abnormality were revealed from more polluted waters (Slooff, 1982).
The term saddleback syndrome was first proposed by Tave et al. (1983) for an abnormality cases of different
degrees of lack of dorsal fin in tilapia
Sarotherodon aureus
. Since then, this deformity has associated with severe
anomaly of the dorsal profile of the fish resulted from deformed dorsal fin pterygiophores. It has been reported
from fish species in the wild around the world (Jawad and Al-Mamry, 2012; Diggles, 2013; Boglione et al., 2013;
Pollock, 2015).
Common pandora is a marine species living in benthopelagic habitat at depth down to 300 m (Bauchot and
Hureau, 1986). It distributed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea (Sanches, 1991). Individuals
of this species prefer deep water during winter time. It is omnivorous, but mainly feed on benthic invertebrates
and small fishes. Sex interchange is possible as females become males in their 3
rd
year of life (Bauchot and
Hureau, 1986; Froese and Pauly, 2017).
As far as the authors are concerned, the pughead and saddleback syndrome anomalies have not reported for this
species previously. Therefore, this report is the first to document the two cases of abnormalities in
and in the Turkish waters.
