Shoshone pupfish
Encyclopedia
The Shoshone pupfish, Cyprinodon nevadensis shoshone, is characterized by large scales and a "slab-sided," narrow, slender body, with the arch of the ventral contour much less pronounced than the dorsal
. It also has fewer pelvic fin rays and scales than the other pupfish
subspecies
.
, such as the Shoshone pupfish, exhibit many adaptions for life in extreme thermal and osmotic 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
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
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 but also consume small invertebrate
s like chironomid larvae, ostracod
s, and copepod
s. They forage continuously from sunrise to sunset and become inactive at night. Their guts
are extremely long and convoluted, an adaptation that enables them to digest cyanobacteria.
Dorsum (biology)
In anatomy, the dorsum is the upper side of animals that typically run, fly, or swim in a horizontal position, and the back side of animals that walk upright. In vertebrates the dorsum contains the backbone. The term dorsal refers to anatomical structures that are either situated toward or grow...
. It also has fewer pelvic fin rays and scales than the other pupfish
Pupfish
Pupfish are a group of small killifish belonging to ten genera of the family Cyprinodontidae of ray-finned fish. All pupfish are especially noted for being found in extreme and isolated situations, in various parts of North America, South America, and the Caribbean region...
subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
.
Location
- Shoshone Springs
- upper Amargosa RiverAmargosa RiverThe Amargosa River is an intermittent waterway, 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, into the Mojave Desert, and finally into Death Valley where it disappears into...
- Amargosa DesertAmargosa DesertThe Amargosa Desert is located in Nye County in western Nevada, United States, along the California–Nevada border. It is largely coincident with the geographic Amargosa Valley....
- Amargosa ValleyAmargosa ValleyThe Amargosa Valley is a Nevada landform east of the Amargosa Range that is the eponym for the town of Amargosa Valley, Nevada. The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad ran through the valley from 1906 to 1940.-Solar thermal plant:...
- 21 km north of Tecopa, CaliforniaTecopa, CaliforniaTecopa is a census-designated place 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, up from 99 at the 2000 census.One of Tecopa's popular features is its natural hot...
- Inyo County, CaliforniaInyo County, California-National protected areas:* Death Valley National Park * Inyo National Forest * Manzanar National Historic Site-Major highways:* U.S. Route 6* U.S. Route 395* State Route 127* State Route 136* State Route 168* State Route 178...
- Considered extinct by late 1960s; rediscovered 1986 at spring's outflow.
- Shoshone Spring outflow, Shoshone, Inyo County, California.
- Rediscovery by F. R. Taylor, R. R. Miller (the original describer), J. W. Pedretti, and J. E. Deacon 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 is 31 July 1986 in which caudal ray count differed from the original description. Note: although rediscovered, this pupfish does not enjoy ENDANGERED SPECIES STATUS and its' present survival is unverified by redocucumentation.
Description
PupfishPupfish
Pupfish are a group of small killifish belonging to ten genera of the family Cyprinodontidae of ray-finned fish. All pupfish are especially noted for being found in extreme and isolated situations, in various parts of North America, South America, and the Caribbean region...
, such as the Shoshone pupfish, exhibit many adaptions for life in extreme thermal and osmotic 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
Habitat (ecology)
A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism...
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
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
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 but also consume small invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s like chironomid larvae, ostracod
Ostracod
Ostracoda is a class of the Crustacea, sometimes known as the seed shrimp because of their appearance. Some 65,000 species have been identified, grouped into several orders....
s, and copepod
Copepod
Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Some species are planktonic , some are benthic , and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests,...
s. They forage continuously from sunrise to sunset and become inactive at night. Their guts
Gut (zoology)
In zoology, the gut, also known as the alimentary canal or alimentary tract, is a tube by which bilaterian animals transfer food to the digestion organs. In large bilaterians the gut generally also has an exit, the anus, by which the animal disposes of solid wastes...
are extremely long and convoluted, an adaptation that enables them to digest cyanobacteria.
Other local Cyprinodons
- Death Valley pupfishDeath Valley pupfishThe 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...
, Salt Creek pupfish Cyprinodon salinus - Shoshone PupfishShoshone pupfishThe Shoshone pupfish, Cyprinodon nevadensis shoshone, is characterized by large scales and a "slab-sided," narrow, slender body, with the arch of the ventral contour much less pronounced than the dorsal...
, Cyprinodon nevadensis shoshone - Tecopa PupfishTecopa pupfishThe Tecopa pupfish is an extinct subspecies of the Amargosa pupfish . The small, heat-tolerant pupfish was endemic to the outflows of a pair of hot springs in the Mojave Desert of California...
, Cyprinodon nevadensis calidae (extinct) - Devil's Hole pupfishDevil's Hole pupfishThe Devil's Hole pupfish, Cyprinodon diabolis, is a species of fish native to Devil's Hole, a geothermal , aquifer-fed pool within a limestone cavern, in the Amargosa Pupfish Station of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex east of Death Valley National Park.-Physical description:The Devil's...
Cyprinodon diabolis - Desert pupfish Cyprinodon maculariusCyprinodon maculariusCyprinodon macularius is a rare species of fish in the family Cyprinodontidae and is known by the common name desert pupfish. It is a federally listed endangered species in the United States....
- Owens pupfishOwens pupfishThe 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 long, the largest males...
Cyprinodon radiosus