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 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 ...

Saratoga Springs Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over ...

, a small wetland in

Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eure ...

in the United States.

Taxonomy

The

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 ...

is a member of the genus ''

Cyprinodon ''Cyprinodon'' is a genus of pupfishes found in waters that range from fresh to hypersaline. The genus is primarily found in Mexico, the Caribbean Islands and southern United States (Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma a ...

''. Most

divergence In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the quantity of the vector field's source at each point. More technically, the divergence represents the volume density of t ...

of ''Cyprinodon'' species likely took place during the early-to-mid

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

, a time when

pluvial lake A pluvial lake is a body of water that accumulated in a basin because of a greater moisture availability resulting from changes in temperature and/or precipitation. These intervals of greater moisture availability are not always contemporaneous ...

s 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 Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

of small ''Cyprinodon'' populations and the

speciation Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution withi ...

of ''C. nevadensis''. Ichthyologists

Rosa Smith Eigenmann Rosa Smith Eigenmann (October 7, 1858 – January 12, 1947) was an American ichthyologist (the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish), as well as a writer, editor, former curator at the California Academy of Sciences, and the first libra ...

and

Carl H. Eigenmann Carl Henry Eigenmann (March 9, 1863 – April 24, 1927) was a German-American ichthyologist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who, along with his wife Rosa Smith Eigenmann, and his zoology students is credited with identifyin ...

first identified ''Cyprinodon nevadensis'' in 1889. Later authors considered it the same species as

Cyprinodon macularius ''Cyprinodon'' is a genus of pupfishes found in waters that range from fresh to hypersaline. The genus is primarily found in Mexico, the Caribbean Islands and southern United States (Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and ...

. In the 1940s,

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 ...

again described ''C. nevadensis'' as a distinct species, and identified six subspecies, including ''C. n. nevadensis''. Other subspecies include the

Amargosa River pupfish The Amargosa River pupfish (''Cyprinodon nevadensis amargosae'') is a member of a pupfish species complex which inhabits the watershed of ancient Lake Manly Lake Manly was a pluvial lake in Death Valley, California, covering much of Death ...

(''C. n. amargosae''), the

Ash Meadows pupfish Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non-gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash is ...

(''C. n. mionectes''), the

Warm Springs pupfish Warm, WARM, or Warmth may refer to: * A somewhat high temperature * Kindness Music * ''Warm'' (The Lettermen album), 1967, and the title song * ''Warm'' (Johnny Mathis album), 1958, and the title song * ''Warm'' (Herb Alpert album), 1969 * '' ...

(''C. n. pectoralis''), the Shoshone pupfish (''C. n. shoshone''), and the extinct

Tecopa pupfish The Tecopa pupfish (''Cyprinodon nevadensis calidae'') is an extinction, extinct subspecies of the Amargosa pupfish (''Cyprinodon nevadensis''). The small, heat-tolerant pupfish was endemism, endemic to the outflows of a pair of hot springs in th ...

(''C. n. calidae'').

Description

Male Saratoga Springs pupfish are bright blue in color, while females are a drab olive-brown. The fish have a

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

of , and the

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

is rarely greater than . The diet of ''C. n. nevadensis'' is typical of pupfishes. Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) are the primary food source, for which their lengthy guts are particularly well adapted.

Ostracod Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant) have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typic ...

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthic (living on the ocean floor), a number of species have p ...

s, and the larvae of chironomids provide seasonal nutrition. Mating behavior differs from stream-dwelling pupfishes but is similar to other spring-dwellers. Males defend

territories A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

in which females lay eggs throughout the year. While the fish are capable of surviving a wide range of temperatures, reproduction is limited to a narrower range ().

Distribution and habitat

The fish is only known to occur naturally at

. A diameter, deep spring pool overflows into several ponds totaling about . The temperature at the spring is a near constant , while the ponds fluctuate seasonally between . Fish at all life stages are found in the ponds, but juvenile fish are not known to occur in the spring itself. A population was introduced at

Lake Tuendae Lake Tuendae is an artificial pond at the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, California. It is inhabited by American Coot, mudhens as well as the endangered Mohave tui chub. See also *List of lakes in California References * * CA F ...<br></span></div>, an artificial pond in <a class= Zzyzx, California, but reports conflict as to its continued survival there.

Conservation

The Saratoga Springs pupfish carries no official conservation status. The state of California has identified it as possibly qualifying as

threatened Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensa ...

based on its limited distribution and the possibility that distant groundwater pumping may deplete the

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials ( gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characteri ...

that supplies Saratoga Springs. The aquifer may extend to as far away as western

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

. Groundwater depletion in the

Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Statistical Area i ...

, to the northeast, is of particular concern. In order to protect the pupfish and several other sensitive species, the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government within the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of ...

prohibits visitors from entering the wetland at Saratoga Springs.

References

External links

Death Valley geology field trip: Saratoga and Valley Springs
(Includes photo) {{Taxonbar, from=Q6544964 Cyprinodon Death Valley Taxa named by Rosa Smith Eigenmann Taxa named by Carl H. Eigenmann Pupfish, Saratoga Springs Pupfish, Saratoga Springs Pupfish, Saratoga Springs Pupfish, Saratoga Springs Natural history of Inyo County, California