Morphometric and meristic characters of fishes

Abstract

Both from the taxonomic as well as the management point of view, a correct identification of marine fishes is important. The Folk taxonomies that developed in earlier times contained 250 to 800 kinds of animals. The invention of printing in the fifteenth century and world explorations have made: expansion of taxonomy both possible and inevitable. A number of attempts to classify animals were made, but were limited in scope until Linnaeus intro duced the binomial nomenclature in the eighteenth century. He has recognised species as the basic unit in nature. This meant that it is necessary to describe only one individual to know of an entire species.