The Mezquital pupfish (''Cyprinodon meeki'') is a species of

pupfish Pupfish are a group of small killifish belonging to ten genera of the family Cyprinodontidae of ray-finned fish. Pupfish are especially noted for being found in extreme and isolated situations. They are primarily found in North America, South ...

in the family Cyprinodontidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

Durango Durango (), officially named Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Durango; Tepehuán: ''Korian''; Nahuatl: ''Tepēhuahcān''), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated i ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

. This species was described by

Robert Rush Miller Robert Rush Miller (April 23, 1916 – February 10, 2003) "was an important figure in American ichthyology and conservation from 1940 to the 1990s." He was born in Colorado Springs, earned his bachelor's degree at University of California, Berk ...

in 1976 from a pond which was fed by hot springs within the basin of the

Río del Tunal Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for " river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, ...

, approximately east of

Durango City Durango City (, stp, Korian), officially Victoria de Durango is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Durango. The city, which is located in Northern Mexico has a population of 654,876 as of the 2015 census, and sits at an altitu ...

at an altitude of about . The specific name honors the American

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of October ...

Seth Eugene Meek Seth Eugene Meek (April 1, 1859, Hicksville, Ohio – July 6, 1914, Chicago) was an American ichthyologist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He was the first compiler of a book on Mexican freshwater fishes. Together with his assi ...

(1859-1914), a pioneer of the study of the freshwater fish of Mexico.

References

Cyprinodon Endemic fish of Mexico Freshwater fish of Mexico Endangered fish Taxa named by Robert Rush Miller Fish described in 1976 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Cyprinodontiformes-stub