Taxonomic assessment and distribution of fishes in upper Kura and Aras river drainages Author Kaya, Cueneyt https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4531-798X Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Faculty of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 53100 Rize, Turkey cnytkaya@yahoo.com Author Baycelebi, Esra Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Faculty of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 53100 Rize, Turkey Author Turan, Davut Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Faculty of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 53100 Rize, Turkey text Zoosystematics and Evolution 2020 2020-06-15 96 2 325 344 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zse.96.52241 journal article http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zse.96.52241 1860-0743-2-325 531B8DC0565A497BB390B6F9A7444082 9E52AC7E102B5DE894E720AA25F9B010 Romanogobio macropterus (Kamensky, 1901) Fig. 4d Common / local names. Kura gudgeon / Kura Derekayasi *. IUCN status. Least concern (LC). Examined material. FFR 5977, Kura River at Yalnizcam , 41.0709N , 42.4844E . - FFR 5922, Stream Cakir , 3 km south of Cakildere , Kura drainage, 40.9669N , 42.5861E . Not preserved, Stream Kars at campus of Kafkas University, Aras drainage, 40.5814N , 43.0591E . - FFR 5969, Aras River at Koepruecay , 39.9699N , 41.8883E . Distribution in the area. Kura and Aras River drainages in northeastern Turkey. Remarks. The type locality of the species is the Caucasus. The Kura population was identified as R. macropterus . However, we observed some morphological differences between Kura and Aras populations obtained in this study. The Aras population has a slenderer body and caudal peduncle than R. macropterus from Kura (Fig. 4d , 4e ). Therefore, we encourage detailed morphologic and molecular research including the Kura, Aras and Urmia populations to clarify the taxonomic position of the Aras population.