Death Valley pupfish

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Death Valley pupfish
Salt Creek pupfish.jpg
Male (right) and female (left)
Status TNC G1.svg
Critically Imperiled  (NatureServe) [2]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Cyprinodontiformes
Family: Cyprinodontidae
Genus: Cyprinodon
Species:
C. salinus
Binomial name
Cyprinodon salinus
Subspecies
  • C. s. salinus
  • C. s. milleri

The Death Valley pupfish (Cyprinodon salinus), also known as Salt Creek pupfish, is a small species of fish in the family Cyprinodontidae found only in Death Valley National Park, California, United States. There are two recognized subspecies: C. s. salinus and C. s. milleri. The Death Valley pupfish is endemic to two small, isolated locations and currently classified as endangered.

Contents

Description

The spring-fed pools of upper Salt Creek are the year-round habitat of pupfish Salt Creek pools.jpg
The spring-fed pools of upper Salt Creek are the year-round habitat of pupfish

The Death Valley Pupfish is a small, silvery colored fish with 6–9 vertical dark bands on its sides. It has an average length of 3.7 cm (1.5 in), with a recorded maximum of 7.8 cm (3.1 in). [3]

The males, often appearing in larger sizes compared to females, turn bright blue during mating season, April through October. The females, along with premature pupfish, tend to have tanned backs with iridescent, silvery sides. Both males and females have plump bodies with rounded fins, a squashed head and an upturned mouth. [4] The pupfish can withstand harsh conditions that would kill other fish: water that is 4 times more saline than the ocean, hot water up to 116 °F (47 °C), and cold water down to 32 °F (0 °C). [5]

Distribution and habitat

This species is known from only two locations in Death Valley: Salt Creek (subspecies salinus) at about 49 m (161 ft) below sea level, and Cottonball Marsh (subspecies milleri), at about 80 m (260 ft) below sea level. [1] They are thought to be the remainders of 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. [6]

The Salt Creek subspecies is also found at River Springs and Soda Lake, in Death Valley National Park. [5]

Conservation

The Death Valley pupfish has been classified as endangered by the IUCN because of its extremely restricted distribution (if the two extant locations were treated as a single unit, it would be considered critically endangered). Numbers of individuals at the locations are highly seasonally variable, and fluctuate with water level and flow volume. While the entire range of the species is located in a protected area, it may be under threat from accidental introduction of non-native species, local catastrophic events, and excessive pumping of the aquifer that feeds the habitat. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Devils Hole pupfish</span> Rare species of fish native to Nevada, U.S.

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Cyprinodon is a genus of pupfishes found in waters that range from fresh to hypersaline. The genus is primarily found in Mexico, the Caribbean Islands and southern United States, but C. variegatus occurs as far north as Massachusetts and along the entire Gulf of Mexico coastline, and C. dearborni and C. variegatus are found in northern South America. Many species have tiny ranges and are highly threatened, in some cases already extinct. Cyprinodon are small; the largest reaches 10 cm (3.9 in) in length and most other species only reach about half that size.

Robert Rush Miller was an important figure in American ichthyology and conservation from 1940 to the 1990s.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comanche Springs pupfish</span> Species of fish

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Owens pupfish</span> Species of fish

The Owens pupfish is a rare species of fish in the family Cyprinodontidae, the pupfish. It is endemic to California in the United States, where it is limited to the Owens Valley. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States. This pupfish is up to 5 centimetres long, the largest males sometimes longer. The male is blue-gray, turning bright blue during spawning. The female is greenish brown with a silvery or whitish belly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desert pupfish</span> Species of fish

The desert pupfish is a rare species of bony fish in the family Cyprinodontidae. It is a small fish, typically less than 7.62 cm (3 in) in length. Males are generally larger than females, and have bright-blue coloration, while females and juveniles are silvery or tan. A notable attribute of the desert pupfish is their ability to survive in environments of extreme salinity, pH, and temperature, and low oxygen content. The desert pupfish mates in a characteristic fashion, wherein compatible males and females will come in contact and collectively jerk in an s-shape. Each jerk typically produces a single egg that is fertilized by the male and deposited in his territory. Breeding behavior includes aggressive arena-breeding and more docile consort-pair breeding.

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Cyprinodon nevadensis is a species of pupfish in the genus Cyprinodon. The species is also known as the Amargosa pupfish, but that name may also refer to one subspecies, Cyprinodon nevadensis amargosae. All six subspecies are or were endemic to very isolated locations in the Mojave Desert of California and Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Manly</span> Lake in Death Valley, California, United States

Lake Manly is a pluvial lake in Death Valley, California. It forms occasionally in Badwater Basin after heavy rainfall, but at its maximum extent during the so-called "Blackwelder stand," ending approximately 120,000 years before present, the lake covered much of Death Valley with a surface area of 1,600 square kilometres (620 sq mi). Water levels varied through its history, and the chronology is further complicated by active tectonic processes that have modified the elevations of the various shorelines of Lake Manly; during the Blackwelder stage they reached 47–90 metres (154–295 ft) above sea level. The lake received water mainly from the Amargosa River and at various points from the Mojave River and Owens River. The lake and its substantial catchment favoured the spread of a number of aquatic species, including some lizards, pupfish and springsnails. The lake probably supported a substantial ecosystem, and a number of diatoms developed there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amargosa River pupfish</span> Subspecies of fish

The Amargosa River pupfish is a member of a pupfish species complex which inhabits the watershed of ancient Lake Manly. Currently, the species inhabits two disjunct perennial reaches of the lower Amargosa River. The upstream portion is near Tecopa and passes through the Amargosa Canyon. The lower portion is northwest of Saratoga Springs, just at the head of Death Valley, where the Amargosa River turns north to enter the valley.

References

  1. 1 2 3 NatureServe (2013). "Cyprinodon salinus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2013: e.T62211A15362833. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T62211A15362833.en . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  2. NatureServe (7 April 2023). "Cyprinodon salinus". NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer. NatureServe. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  3. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2015). "Cyprinodon salinus" in FishBase . 12 2015 version.
  4. "Natural History". Center for Biological Diversity.
  5. 1 2 "Salt Creek pupfish". U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Archived from the original on 2016-06-11. Retrieved 2016-05-15.
  6. US Geological Survey (30 June 2000). "Shoreline Butte: Ice age Death Valley". Death Valley Geology Field Trip Shoreline Butte. Department of the Interior. Archived from the original on 2015-04-30. Retrieved 2009-09-10.

Further reading