Meristic traits are referred to as traits that are countable, hence the phenotypes are described by whole numbers instead of irrational, prime, complex or imaginary numbers. Meristics traits are usually associated with fishes, it is used to characterize different known species of fish or can also be employed in identifying unknown fish species. Meristic studies are mostly done on dead fishes than on living fishes
An example of a countable trait in fishes is the number of gill rakers. The identification of the number of gill rakers can be used in identifying the specie of fish.
