Saratoga Springs pupfish

Saratoga Springs pupfish
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Cyprinodontiformes
Family:	Cyprinodontidae
Genus:	Cyprinodon
Species:	C. nevadensis
Subspecies:	C. n. nevadensis
Trinomial name
Cyprinodon nevadensis nevadensis (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1889)

The Saratoga Springs pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadensis nevadensis) is a subspecies of the Amargosa pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadensis) of the family Cyprinodontidae. The native population is endemic to Saratoga Springs, a small wetland in Death Valley National Park in the United States.

The pupfish is a member of the genus Cyprinodon. Most divergence of Cyprinodon species likely took place during the early-to-mid , a time when pluvial lakes intermittently filled the now-desert region, though some may have occurred during the last 10,000 years. The evaporation of the lakes resulted in the geographic isolation of small Cyprinodon populations and the speciation of C. nevadensis.

Ichthyologists Rosa Smith Eigenmann and Carl H. Eigenmann first identified Cyprinodon nevadensis in 1889. Later authors considered it the same species as Cyprinodon macularius. In the 1940s, Robert Rush Miller again described C. nevadensis as a distinct species, and identified six subspecies, including C. n. nevadensis.

Other subspecies include the Amargosa River pupfish (C. n. amargosae), the Ash Meadows pupfish (C. n. mionectes), the Warm Springs pupfish (C. n. pectoralis), the Shoshone pupfish (C. n. shoshone), and the extinct Tecopa pupfish (C. n. calidae).

Male Saratoga Springs pupfish are bright blue in color, while females are a drab olive-brown. The fish have a standard length of 4 cm (1.5 in), and the total length is rarely greater than 5 cm (2 in).

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Wikipedia