''Dallia'' (Blackfish) is a genus of mudminnows native to

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. Molecular data indicates the genus is more closely related to ''Esox'' and ''Novumbra'' than ''Umbra.'' ''Dallia'' diverged from ''Novumbra'' + ''Esox'' approximately 66 million years ago. The genus was named after American naturalist

William Healey Dall William Healey Dall (August 21, 1845 – March 27, 1927) was an American natural history, naturalist, a prominent Malacology, malacologist, and one of the earliest scientific explorers of interior Alaska. He described many mollusks of the Pacifi ...

Species

Three species in this genus are recognized: * '' Dallia admirabilis'' Chereshnev, 1980 (Amguema blackfish) * '' Dallia delicatissima'' Smitt, 1881 (Pilkhykay blackfish) * '' Dallia pectoralis'' T. H. Bean, 1880 (Alaska blackfish) Mitochondrial sequence data was examined from ''D. pectoralis'' and ''D. admirabilis'' and did not indicate that speciation within the genus in Russia; however, genetic isolation within Alaska for populations of ''D. pectoralis'' could be high and associated with karyotype differences. Fossil remains of ''Dallia'' are known from the

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...

near

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

, Alaska, suggesting they were found further south in the past.

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

-aged fossil remains also suggest they ranged significantly more west in Siberia as well.

References

Umbridae Ray-finned fish genera Taxa named by Tarleton Hoffman Bean {{esociformes-stub