Utah bullhead

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Utah bullhead
Systematics
Order : Perch-like (Perciformes)
Subordination : Cottoidei
Partial order : Bull relatives (Cottales)
Family : Bullheads (Cottidae)
Genre : Cottus
Type : Utah bullhead
Scientific name
Cottus echinatus
Bailey & Bond , 1963

The Utah bullhead ( Cottus echinatus ) is an extinct freshwater fish that was endemic to Lake Utah in the US state of Utah .

description

The Utah bullhead was long, slender, and reached nine to eleven centimeters in length. She saw the sculpins of Bear Lakes ( Cottus extensus ) very similar but had a larger head and bristles at the chest and abdomen. The Utah bullhead was light brown on top and mottled dark on the sides. It probably fed on invertebrates.

distribution and habitat

The Utah bullhead belonged to the benthic fish fauna (basic inhabitants) and lived in Lake Utah, especially in the mouth of the Provo River .

die out

The disappearance of the Utah bullhead is apparently due to the great droughts during the 1920s and 1930s that caused the water table to drop rapidly. Large parts of the lake froze over in winter due to the shallow water level. As a result, the fish migrated to the parts that were not frozen over, where there was an overpopulation and thus food shortages. Added to this was the deterioration in water quality due to agricultural practices. The Utah bullhead was last caught in 1928 and has been considered extinct since the mid-1930s.

literature

  • Reeve M. Bailey, Carl E. Bond: Four new species of freshwater sculpins, genus Cottus, from western North America . tape 634 . Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1963, pp. 1-27 .
  • David Stephen Lee et al .: Atlas of North American Freshwater Fishes . North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, Raleigh 1980, ISBN 0-917134-03-6 .
  • David Day: The Doomsday Book of Animals . Ebury Press, London 1981, ISBN 0-85223-183-0 .
  • Lawrence M. Page, Brooks M. Burr: Peterson Field Guide Series - A Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes: North America North of Mexico . Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, New York 1991, ISBN 0-395-91091-9 .
  • Walton Beacham: World Wildlife Fund Guide to Extinct Species of Modern Times . 1997, ISBN 0-933833-40-7 .

Web links