The Ash Meadows killifish (''Empetrichthys merriami'') is a species of killifish from the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Empetrichthyinae Empetrichthyinae is a subfamily of fishes, one of two subfamilies that make up the family Goodeidae. Genera There are two genera within the subfamily Empetrichthyinae: * '' Crenichthys'' Hubbs, 1932 * '' Empetrichthys'' Gilbert Gilbert may refe ...

, part of the family Goodeidae, which was first documented by C. H. Gilbert in 1893 and historically occupied numerous springs near

Ash Meadows The Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is a protected wildlife refuge located in the Amargosa Valley of southern Nye County, in southwestern Nevada. It is directly east of Death Valley National Park, and is west-northwest of Las Vegas.

Nye County, Nevada Nye County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,591. Its county seat is Tonopah. At , Nye is Nevada's largest county by area and the third-largest county in the contiguous United States, behi ...

, United States. This species was last seen in 1948 and is believed to have gone extinct in the early 1950s, likely as a result of habitat alteration and competition with and predation by introduced crayfish '' Procambarus clarkii'', mosquitofish ('' Gambusia affinis''), black mollies ('' Poecilia sphenops''), and bullfrogs ('' Rana catesbeiana''). The common name of the genus ''Empetrichthys'' has since been changed from killifish to poolfish. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

honours the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

naturalist and physician

C. Hart Merriam Clinton Hart Merriam (December 5, 1855 – March 19, 1942) was an American zoologist, mammalogist, ornithologist, entomologist, ecologist, ethnographer, geographer, naturalist and physician. He was commonly known as the 'father of mammalogy', a ...

(1855-1942), who led Death Valley (California, USA) expedition, during which he and Vernon Orlando Bailey (1864-1942) co-collected the

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

References

Fish described in 1893

Ash Meadows killifish The Ash Meadows killifish (''Empetrichthys merriami'') is a species of killifish from the subfamily Empetrichthyinae, part of the family Goodeidae, which was first documented by C. H. Gilbert in 1893 and historically occupied numerous springs n ...

Natural history of Nevada Fish of North America becoming extinct since 1500 Extinct animals of the United States {{Cyprinodontiformes-stub