On 2004-02-05 08:09:51 -0700, "Thomas Gnauck" said:

Chas-
Since you seem to be in the know on Bull trout and Dollies. Can you
clarify
something for me?
I have always been told that the only difference between a Dolly and a
Bull
was that the Dolly was "sea run"
(similar to the rainbow/steelhead)
Are there actual detectable genetic differences?
I have never heard of the anal adipose alignment identification what are
the
other identifiers but it seems a very sketchy
way of calling a bull a bull and then implanting it?

They are two different species. The Dolly Varden is Salvelinus malma malma
and the Bull Trout is Salvelinus confluentus. This web site gives a
description of the differences:

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fishing_0601_04.html

According to this web site, even though the two species look very similar,
they actually are not as closely related as the similarity suggests. It
goes so far as to say that they didn't evolve from a common ancestor, which
is nonsense, of course. All fish share a common ancestor, and for that
matter all fish share a common ancestor with humans. :-) I suppose what
they mean is that the two species don't have an IMMEDIATE common ancestor.
They're more like cousins than like brothers.

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