Morphometric Characterisation of Freshwater Clam (Egeria radiata) in Three Geographic Locations of South-South Nigeria

Abstract

Egeria radiata is a freshwater clam endemic in some large water bodies in West Africa where it serves the native communities as source of protein, income, etc. Studies on characterisation of exploited species can provide information helpful in predicting their availability, especially in the future. This research engaged nine morphometric traits of the species collected from three different geographic locations in south-south Nigeria – Itu, Southern Ijaw, and Burutu. Statistics used in the analyses were ANOVA, PCA, Coordinate plots of PCs and Hierarchical cluster analysis. Five traits were identified as primary sources of variations. Southern Ijaw samples were peculiar while Itu and Burutu samples were statistically similar. Although environmental influence seems to interact with physiological processes to effect the changes in shell parameters, they are not reliable in this case because the populations were not properly distinguished based on the nine shell-expressed traits engaged in the study. Involvement of molecular technique will, however, give clearer information on the characterisation of the species in the populations of study.