Death Valley pupfish
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Death Valley Pupfish | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Death Valley pupfish spawning in Salt Creek | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Cyprinodontiformes |
| Family: | Cyprinodontidae |
| Genus: | Cyprinodon |
| Species: | C. salinus |
| Binomial name | |
| Cyprinodon salinus R. R. Miller, 1943 | |
| Subspecies | |
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See text. | |
The Death Valley pupfish (Cyprinodon salinus salinus), is found in Death Valley National Park.
Description
The Death Valley pupfish is a species of fish that is the last known survivor of what is thought to have been a large ecosystem of fish species that lived in Lake Manly, which dried up at the end of the last ice age leaving the present day Death Valley in California.
The pupfish is adapted to the shallow, hot, saline water of a particular part of Salt Creek that flows above ground year-round, and is also sometimes referred to as Salt Creek pupfish.
A subspecies (Cyprinodon salinus milleri) lives in nearby Cottonball Marsh. They are both IUCN Red List endangered species.
See also
Other local Cyprinodons
- Tecopa Pupfish, Cyprinodon nevadensis calidae (extinct)
- Saratoga pupfish, Cyprinodon nevadensis nevadensis (subspecies)
Found at Saratoga Springs at the south end of Death Valley.
- Saratoga pupfish, Cyprinodon nevadensis nevadensis (subspecies)
- Amargosa pupfish, Cyprinodon nevadensis amargosa
Found in the Amargosa River northwest of Saratoga Springs. - Devil's Hole pupfish, Cyprinodon diabolis, endangered.
Found in Devil's Hole 37 miles (60 km) east of Furnace Creek, in western Nevada. - Shoshone Pupfish, Cyprinodon nevadensis shoshone
- Desert pupfish ‘’Cyprinodon macularius’’
- Owens pupfish ‘’Cyprinodon radiosus’’
References
Further reading
- Duvernell, D. D., Turner, B. J. (1999). "Variation and divergence of Death Valley pupfish populations at retrotransposon-defined loci". Molecular Biology and Evolution 16 (3): 363–371.
- Lema, S. C. (2008). "The phenotypic plasticity of Death Valley's pupfish: desert fish are revealing how the environment alters development to modify body shape and behavior". American Scientist 96 (1): 28. doi:10.1511/2008.69.3668.
- Jahren, A. H., Sanford, K. L. (2002). "Ground-water is the ultimate source of the Salt Creek pupfish habitat, Death Valley, U.S.A.". Journal of Arid Environments 51 (3): 401–411. doi:10.1006/jare.2001.0950.
External links
Media related to Cyprinodon salinus at Wikimedia Commons- "Cyprinodon salinus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
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