The pygmy smelt (''Osmerus spectrum'') is a North-American freshwater

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

in the family

Osmeridae Smelts are a family of small fish, the Osmeridae, found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans, as well as rivers, streams and lakes in Europe, North America and Northeast Asia. They are also known as freshwater smelts or typical smelts ...

. It is found in a number of deep, thermally stratified lakes in eastern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

(

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

). The pygmy smelt coexists with the rainbow smelt ''

Osmerus mordax The rainbow smelt (''Osmerus mordax'') is a North American species of fish of the family Osmeridae. Walleye, trout, and other larger fish prey on these smelt. The rainbow smelt prefer juvenile ciscoes, zooplankton such as calanoid copepods ('' L ...

'', and is distinguished from it by slower growth, earlier maturation, shorter life span, later spawning time, and use of smaller food items. Genetic data suggest that the pygmy smelt occurrences in each lake have evolved independently from the rainbow smelt lineage, which calls the identity of the pygmy smelt as a species into question. Another, intermediate form of smelt has been identified in

Lake Utopia Lake Utopia is located in eastern Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Charlotte County, New Brunswick. The southern shore of the lake is one kilometre northeast of the town of St. George, New Brunswick, St. George. The lake is connected to the Magag ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, which is genetically distinct from local rainbow smelt but is able to hybridize with it.Bradbury, I.R., Bradford, R., Bentzen, P. (2011)
Genetic and Phenotypic Diversity and Divergence in Sympatric Lake Utopia Rainbow Smelt (''Osmerus mordax'').
DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2011/008: vi + 28p.

Sources

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1384475 Osmerus Fish described in 1870 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Freshwater fish of North America Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN