Death Valley Pupfish
Death Valley Pupfish, spawning in Salt Creek
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinopterygii Order: Cyprinodontiformes Family: Cyprinodontidae Genus: Cyprinodon Species: salinus

The Death Valley Pupfish (Cyprinodon salinus) is a species of fish that is the last known survivor of what is thought to have been an large ecosystem of fish species that lived in Lake Manly which dried up at the end of the last ice age leaving the present day Death Valley in California. The pupfish is adapted to the shallow, hot, salty water of a particular part of Salt Creek that flows above ground year-round. Another sub-species lives in nearby Cottonwood Marsh.

Subspecies

• Salt Creek Pupfish (Cyprinodon salinus salinus)

Found in Salt Creek in the central part of Death Valley.

• Cottonball Marsh Pupfish (Cyprinodon salinus milleri), threatened

Found in Cottonball Marsh on the west side of central Death Valley.

Other Cyprinodons in the area

• Amargosa Pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadensis amargosa)

Found in the Amargosa River northwest of Saratoga Springs.

• Saratoga Pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadensis nevadensis)

Found at Saratoga Springs at the south end of Death Valley.

• Devil's Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis), endangered

Found in Devil's Hole 37 miles east of Furnace Creek, in western Nevada.

Reference

• NPS: Fish in Death Valley (http://www.nps.gov/deva/pphtml/subanimals4.html)
• FishBase: Cyprinodon salinus salinus (http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?ID=3179&genusname=Cyprinodon&speciesname=salinus%20salinus)

External links

• Scientific paper on the genetics of Death Valley Pupfish (http://mbe.oupjournals.org/cgi/reprint/16/3/363)
• Scientific paper on the the importance of groundwater to the Salt Creek Pupfish (http://www.jhu.edu/~eps/faculty/jahren/Jahren&Sanford2002.pdf)