Ash meadows killifish
| Ash meadows killifish | ||||||||||||
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Ash meadows killifish ( Empetrichthys merriami ), illustration by David Starr Jordan, 1907 |
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| Empetrichthys merriami | ||||||||||||
| Gilbert , 1893 |
The Ash Meadows killifish ( Empetrichthys merriami ) is an extinct freshwater fish from the family of the highland carp (Goodeidae). He lived in the hot springs in Ash Meadows , Nye County , Nevada . The kind epithet honors the American naturalist Clinton Hart Merriam .
features
The Ash Meadows killifish reached a standard length of approximately 63.5 mm. The head length was 2.8 to 3.4 times the standard length, the body height 2.8 to 3.7 times. The head was stocky and heavy when viewed from the side, somewhat narrow and narrowing towards the muzzle. The snout was abruptly beveled downwards so that the mouth was below the plane of the longitudinal section. The mouth was narrower, the jaws different. The lower jaw was protruding. The teeth were conical, two-row (biserial) to weakly three-row (triserial). Some of the outer teeth were enlarged a little. The bones of the pharynx were enlarged. The pharyngeal teeth were slightly molar in shape . The coloring is only known from specimens that have been preserved in alcohol. The top is dark brown. The flanks and the underside are lighter and covered with brown and white spots. The belly is piebald and the fins are dark. The scales are brown with a white border.
distribution
The Ash Meadows killifish was endemic to five springs in the Amargosa River basin in Ash Meadows . These were Big Spring (= Desert Spring), Eagle Spring, Point-of-Rocks Spring, Forest Spring and Hidden Spring.
Systematics
The Ash Meadows killifish was classified as a type species of the genus Empetrichthys by Charles Henry Gilbert in 1893 . This genus has been placed in different families in the past, including in 1893 in the Cyprinodontidae family of Gilbert, in 1896 in the Poeciliidae family of David Starr Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann , in 1920 in the Orestiidae family of Carl H. Eigenmann and in 1931 by George Sprague Myers in the tribe Fundulini of the family Cyprinodontidae. Today the genus is in the subfamily Empetrichthyinae of the family Goodeidae.
die out
The first seven specimens of the Ash Meadows killifish were collected in 1891 by Charles Henry Gilbert, who described the species as rare when it was discovered. In 1930 three more specimens were collected by Joseph H. Wales and George Sprague Myers. Between 1936 and 1942 Robert Rush Miller and Ralph G. Miller explored the five sources Big Spring (= Desert Spring), Eagle Spring, Point-of-Rocks Spring, Forest Spring and Hidden Spring, where they found 22 specimens. The last known specimen of the Ash Meadows killifish was collected in September 1948 by John Kopec and WH Hildemann in the Big Spring. In 1953 the ichthyologist Otto M. Sokol was unable to find any more specimens during examinations in the Big Spring. Subsequent expeditions also failed. The appearance of alien species in the Great Basin and Ash Meadows from 1937 onwards is considered to be the possible cause of extinction. These include the North American bullfrog , the black-mouthed , the goblin and the American marsh crab . These species stalked the Ash Meadows killifish or made food and habitat controversial. Another reason for its disappearance was apparently the change in habitat.
literature
- Robert Rush Miller: The Cyprinodont Fishes of the Death Valley System of Eastern California and Southwestern Nevada Miscellaneous Publications, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan No. 68, 1948. p. 101
- Ira La Rivers : Fishes and Fisheries of Nevada. Nevada State Fish and Game Commission, Carson City 1962, pp. 520-523
- David S. Lee, Carter R. Gilbert, Charles H. Hocutt, Robert E. Jenkins, Don E. McAllister, Jay R. Stauffer, Jr .: Atlas of North American Freshwater Fishes. North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, Raleigh NC 1980, ISBN 0-917134-03-6 , p. 506
- Robert R. Miller, James D. Williams, Jack E. Williams: Extinctions of North American Fishes During the Past Century. In: Fisheries. Vol. 14, No. 6, 1989, ISSN 0363-2415 , pp. 22-38, doi : 10.1577 / 1548-8446 (1989) 014 <0022: EONAFD> 2.0.CO; 2 .
- Walton Beacham: World Wildlife Fund Guide to Extinct Species of Modern Times . 1997, ISBN 0-933833-40-7 , pp. 272-273
Web links
- Ash Meadows Killifish on Fishbase.org (English)
- Entry at Natureserve
- Empetrichthys merriami inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016.2. Listed by: NatureServe, 2013. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gilbert, CH 1893. Report on the fishes of the Death Valley expedition collected in southern California and Nevada in 1891, with descriptions of new species . Pp. 229-234, panels 5.6 In: CH Merriam (Ed.), North American Fauna No. 7 part 2. The Death Valley Expedition, a biological survey of parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC
- ↑ David Starr Jordan & Barton Warren Evermann: The fishes of North and Middle America: a descriptive catalog of the species of fish-like vertebrates found in the waters of North America, north of the Isthmus of Panama , Bulletin of the United National Museum No. . 47, Vol. 1, pp. 630-702
- ↑ CH Eigenmann: On the Genera Orestias and Empetrichthys In: Copeia No. 89, 1920, pp. 103-106
- ^ GS Myers: The primary groups of oviparous cyprinodont fishes . Stanford University Publications, University Series, Biological Sciences No. 6, pp. 243-254
- ↑ Lynne R. Parenti: A phylogenetic and biogeographic analysis of cyprinodontiform fishes (Teleostei, Atherinomorpha) . Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History; Vol. 168, article 4, 1981, p. 516