The original and published otolith material used in this study.

Status: presence status in the Ponto-Caspian basin, i.e., CE, Caspian Sea endemic; PCN, Ponto-Caspian native; AZE, Azov Sea endemic; BAN, Black Sea/Azov Sea native; BE, Black Sea endemic; EX, exotic. Quant.: taxonomic level of quantitative analysis, i.e., L, lineage; T, tribe; G, genus; S, species. N, number of specimens; SL, standard length in mm. Institutional abbreviations: CMNFI, Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa; NMNH NASU, Zoological Museum of Ukraine in Kiev; RBINS, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences; SMF, Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt/Main; ZM-CBSU, Zoological Museum of Shiraz University, Collection of Biology Department, Shiraz, Iran; ZMMU/ZMMSU, Zoological Mueum, Moscow University in Moscow; ZMUC, Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen; ZSM, SNSB-Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, Munich.