Identificaciones de fishing_429

Found half dead washing up. There are two species of sand lance found in NJ, with A. dubius being much more common offshore. With this in mind, I thought a wash up would be a rare opportunity to potentially find a specimen of A. dubius, so I took the individual home and dissected to count the meristics that help distinguish the two species. I was unable to count dorsal rays, but lateral plicae and vertebrae count both fell well within A. dubius range and well outside of A. americanus range.

Lateral plicae: 128
Vertebrae: 70