GALAXIAS BREVIPINNIS IN NORTH-EASTERN VICTORIA 
25 
Tumut Pond Tunnel (Fig. 4). Conversely, the 
Tantangara-Eucumbene connection could pro¬ 
vide fish access from the Murray-Darling catch¬ 
ment to the Snowy River catchment. 
Vertebral morphology 
Evidence for the source of the parent stock of 
G.brevipinnis populations may be obtained from 
the vertebral morphology of specimens. 
McDowall & Frankenberg (1981) reported a 
trend among populations of G. brevipinnis for an 
increasing number of vertebrae with increasing 
latitude. The frequency distribution of the num¬ 
ber of vertebrae in G. brevipinnis from north¬ 
eastern Victoria (Fig. 5) has a higher mode than 
that of other populations in Victoria, South Aus¬ 
tralia or New South Wales and most closely 
resembles those of more southerly populations 
in Tasmania and New Zealand. Although the 
differences are not significant and there is a need 
for more specimens to be analysed, the data sug¬ 
gest that the north-eastern Victorian population 
may be unlike those in South Australia and New 
South Wales. The distribution may be character¬ 
istic of the parental stock but may have been 
influenced by environmental factors during de¬ 
velopment, by the random effects of a popu¬ 
lation bottleneck during the early colonisation 
phase, or by sampling bias. No other morpho¬ 
logical characteristics of G.brevipinnis allow 
different populations to be differentiated 
(McDowall & Frankenberg 1981). 
NO. OF VERTEBRAE 
Fig. 5. Frequency distributions of number of vertebrae in Galaxias brevipinnis from north-eastern Victoria and 
from localities listed in McDowall & Frankenberg (1981). 
