The Shoshone pupfish (''Cyprinodon nevadensis shoshone'') is a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of ''

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 ...

'' from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in the United States. It is characterized by large scales and a "slab-sided," narrow, slender body, with the arch of the

ventral Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek language, Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. Th ...

contour much less pronounced than the

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage * Dorsal c ...

. It also has fewer

pelvic fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral surface of fish. The paired pelvic fins are homologous to the hindlimbs of tetrapods. Structure and function Structure In actinopterygians, the pelvic fin consists of two en ...

rays and scales than the other subspecies of ''C. nevadensis''.

Distribution

Its entire range is at the Shoshone Springs. This is a small spring which feeds into the upper

Amargosa River The Amargosa River is an intermittent waterway, 185 miles (298 km) long, in southern Nevada and eastern California in the United States. It drains a high desert region, the Amargosa Valley in the Amargosa Desert northwest of Las Vegas, int ...

in the town of

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easter ...

Inyo County Inyo County () is a county in the eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 census, the population was 19,016. The county seat is Independence. Inyo County is o ...

, California. The town and the springs are both found within the

Amargosa Valley The Amargosa Valley is the valley through which the Amargosa River flows south, in Nye County, southwestern Nevada and Inyo County in the state of California. The south end is alternately called the "Amargosa River Valley'" or the "Tecopa Valley." ...

and in the region referred to as the

Amargosa Desert The Amargosa Desert is located in Nye County in western Nevada, United States, along the California–Nevada border, comprising the northeastern portion of the geographic Amargosa Valley, north of the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. The ...

. The springs are 21 km north of

Tecopa, California Tecopa (formerly Brownsville) is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Mojave Desert, in Inyo County, California, United States. Tecopa is located south-southeast of Shoshone, at an elevation of . The population was 150 at the 2010 census, u ...

. It was considered extinct by the late 1960s, but was rediscovered in 1986 at the spring's outflow. JSTOR: The Southwestern Naturalist, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Sep., 1994), pp. 300-303 . accessed 6/22/2010
/ref> It was rediscovery by F. R. Taylor, R. R. Miller (the original describer), J. W. Pedretti, and J. E. Deacon. This was documented in "Rediscovery of the Shoshone Pupfish Cyprinodon nevadensis shoshone (Cyprinodontidae), at Shoshone Springs, Inyo County, California". published in Bull. Southern California Acad. Sci. 87(2), 1988, pp 67–73. The rediscovery date was 31 July 1986 in which caudal ray count differed from the original description. Although rediscovered, this pupfish does not enjoy Endangered Species Status and its present survival is unverified by redocumentation.

Description

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 ...

, such as the Shoshone pupfish, exhibit many adaptions for life in extreme thermal and

osmotic Osmosis (, ) is the spontaneous net movement or diffusion of solvent molecules through a selectively-permeable membrane from a region of high water potential (region of lower solute concentration) to a region of low water potential (region of ...

environments. Pupfish growth is rapid and sexual maturity is reached within four to six weeks. This short generation time enables pupfish to maintain small but viable populations. Among the subspecies, however, there are minor differences in generation times, with pupfish in

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s with widely fluctuating environmental conditions exhibiting the shortest. Shoshone pupfish like other ''C. nevadensis'' subspecies had wide temperature tolerances (2 to 44 °C); however, the preferred range is 24 to 30 °C. Extreme temperatures affect

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

production and viability, thus any alterations to their habitat that would result in temperature changes outside the range of their reproductive temperature optima are potentially deleterious. Eggs, however, become resistant to environmental stresses within hours of being laid. Shoshone pupfish, like other pupfishes, feed primarily on blue-green

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 ...

but also consume small

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s like

chironomid 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 specie ...

larvae,

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 ...

s, and copepods. They forage continuously from sunrise to sunset and become inactive at night. Their Gut (zoology), guts are extremely long and convoluted, an adaptation that enables them to digest cyanobacteria.

References

Notes

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5479100 Cyprinodon Endemic fauna of California, Pupfish, Shoshone Fauna of the Mojave Desert, Pupfish, Shoshone Fish of the Western United States, Pupfish, Shoshone Freshwater fish of the United States, Pupfish, Shoshone Taxa named by Robert Rush Miller Fish described in 1948 Amargosa Desert Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex Natural history of Inyo County, California Endangered fauna of California Fauna without expected TNC conservation status

Distribution

Description

See also

Other local Cyprinodons

References

Notes