The Saratoga Springs pupfish (''Cyprinodon nevadensis nevadensis'') is a subspecies of the Amargosa pupfish (''

Cyprinodon nevadensis ''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 wer ...

'') of the family Cyprinodontidae. The native population is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Saratoga Springs Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over 2 ...

, a small wetland in

Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka ...

in the United States.

Taxonomy

The

pupfish Pupfish are a group of small killifish belonging to ten genera of the family Cyprinodontidae of ray-finned fish. Pupfish are especially noted for being found in extreme and isolated situations. They are primarily found in North America, South Am ...

is a member of the genus ''

Cyprinodon ''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 (Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and ...

''. Most

divergence In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the quantity of the vector field's source at each point. More technically, the divergence represents the volume density of the ...

of ''Cyprinodon'' species likely took place during the early-to-mid

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

, a time when

pluvial lake A pluvial lake is a body of water that accumulated in a basin because of a greater moisture availability resulting from changes in temperature and/or precipitation. These intervals of greater moisture availability are not always contemporaneous ...

s intermittently filled the now-desert region, though some may have occurred during the last 10,000 years. The evaporation of the lakes resulted in the

geographic isolation Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

of small ''Cyprinodon'' populations and the

speciation Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within ...

of ''C. nevadensis''. Ichthyologists

Rosa Smith Eigenmann Rosa Smith Eigenmann (October 7, 1858 – January 12, 1947) was an American ichthyologist (the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish), as well as a writer, editor, former curator at the California Academy of Sciences, and the first libra ...

and

Carl H. Eigenmann Carl Henry Eigenmann (March 9, 1863 – April 24, 1927) was a German-American ichthyologist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who, along with his wife Rosa Smith Eigenmann, and his zoology students is credited with identifyin ...

first identified ''Cyprinodon nevadensis'' in 1889. Later authors considered it the same species as

Cyprinodon macularius ''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 (Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and ...

. In the 1940s,

Robert Rush Miller Robert Rush Miller (April 23, 1916 – February 10, 2003) "was an important figure in American ichthyology and conservation from 1940 to the 1990s." He was born in Colorado Springs, earned his bachelor's degree at University of California, Berke ...

again described ''C. nevadensis'' as a distinct species, and identified six subspecies, including ''C. n. nevadensis''. Other subspecies include the Amargosa River pupfish (''C. n. amargosae''), the Ash Meadows pupfish (''C. n. mionectes''), the

Warm Springs pupfish Warm, WARM, or Warmth may refer to: * A somewhat high temperature * Kindness Music * ''Warm'' (The Lettermen album), 1967, and the title song * ''Warm'' (Johnny Mathis album), 1958, and the title song * ''Warm'' (Herb Alpert album), 1969 * '' ...

(''C. n. pectoralis''), the

Shoshone pupfish The Shoshone pupfish (''Cyprinodon nevadensis shoshone'') is a subspecies of ''Cyprinodon nevadensis'' from California in the United States. It is characterized by large scales and a "slab-sided," narrow, slender body, with the arch of the ventr ...

(''C. n. shoshone''), and the extinct

Tecopa pupfish The Tecopa pupfish (''Cyprinodon nevadensis calidae'') is an extinction, extinct subspecies of the Amargosa pupfish (''Cyprinodon nevadensis''). The small, heat-tolerant pupfish was endemism, endemic to the outflows of a pair of hot springs in th ...

(''C. n. calidae'').

Description

Male Saratoga Springs pupfish are bright blue in color, while females are a drab olive-brown. The fish have a

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

of , and the

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

is rarely greater than . The diet of ''C. n. nevadensis'' is typical of pupfishes.

Cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blu ...

(blue-green algae) are the primary food source, for which their lengthy guts are particularly well adapted.

Ostracod Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant) have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typic ...

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...

s, and the larvae of

chironomids The Chironomidae (informally known as chironomids, nonbiting midges, or lake flies) comprise a family of nematoceran flies with a global distribution. They are closely related to the Ceratopogonidae, Simuliidae, and Thaumaleidae. Many species s ...

provide seasonal nutrition. Mating behavior differs from stream-dwelling pupfishes but is similar to other spring-dwellers. Males defend

territories A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or an ...

in which females lay eggs throughout the year. While the fish are capable of surviving a wide range of temperatures, reproduction is limited to a narrower range ().

Distribution and habitat

The fish is only known to occur naturally at

. A diameter, deep spring pool overflows into several ponds totaling about . The temperature at the spring is a near constant , while the ponds fluctuate seasonally between . Fish at all life stages are found in the ponds, but juvenile fish are not known to occur in the spring itself. A population was introduced at

Lake Tuendae Lake Tuendae is an artificial pond at the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, California. It is inhabited by American Coot, mudhens as well as the endangered Mohave tui chub. See also *List of lakes in California References * * CA F ...<br></span></div>, an artificial pond in <div class= Zzyzx, California Zzyzx ( ), formerly Soda Springs, is an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, California, within the boundaries of the Mojave National Preserve, managed by the National Park Service (NPS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Inter ...

, but reports conflict as to its continued survival there.

Conservation

The Saratoga Springs pupfish carries no official conservation status. The state of California has identified it as possibly qualifying as

threatened Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensat ...

based on its limited distribution and the possibility that distant groundwater pumping may deplete the

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characterist ...

that supplies Saratoga Springs. The aquifer may extend to as far away as western

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

Groundwater depletion Overdrafting is the process of extracting groundwater beyond the equilibrium yield of an aquifer. Groundwater is one of the largest sources of fresh water and is found underground. Groundwater depletion is comparable to a bank account in which mor ...

in the

Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the Southern Nevada, southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Stat ...

, to the northeast, is of particular concern. In order to protect the pupfish and several other sensitive species, the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

prohibits visitors from entering the wetland at Saratoga Springs.

References

External links

Death Valley geology field trip: Saratoga and Valley Springs
(Includes photo) {{Taxonbar, from=Q6544964 Cyprinodon Death Valley Taxa named by Rosa Smith Eigenmann Taxa named by Carl H. Eigenmann Pupfish, Saratoga Springs Pupfish, Saratoga Springs Pupfish, Saratoga Springs Pupfish, Saratoga Springs Natural history of Inyo County, California