Otolith and somatic mass of two Gadidae ( Merlangius merlangus and Trisopterus minutus ) were compared in order to analyse the sex‐specific relationship between otolith and somatic growth at age. In the present study, otolith mass appeared a reliable indicator of age in both species. Otolith growth reflected somatic growth, but the relationship between these characters varied and differed between species and sexes.

Nine common sole Solea vulgaris samples from five fishery Management Units (MUs) of the central Mediterranean exhibited differences in a control region sequence marker. Parsimony network showed two low‐divergent haplotype phylogroups. The former predominated in samples from the Ligurian, Tyrrhenian, Adriatic and north‐western Ionian Seas (MUs 9, 10, 17, 18 and northern part of 19, respectively), whereas the latter was abundant...

Within the genus Solea , four sister lineages have been evolved that actually correspond to the species S. vulgaris, S. senegalensis, S. kleini and S. lascaris . The existence of S. aegyptiaca and S. impar is not supported and these species can be synonymized under S. vulgaris and S. lascaris , respectively. This pattern of taxonomy agrees fully with that proposed by Ben‐Tuvia (1990; Journal of Fish Biology 36, 947–960) based...