''Rhinichthys'', known as the riffle daces, is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

ray-finned fishes Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class (biology), class of Osteichthyes, bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Leuciscidae Leuciscidae is a family of freshwater ray-finned fishes, formerly classified as a subfamily of the Cyprinidae, which contains the true minnows. Members of the Old World (OW) clade of minnows within this subfamily are known as European minnow ...

, the shiners, daces and minnows. The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

is ''

Rhinichthys atratulus ''Rhinichthys'', known as the riffle daces, is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. The type species is '' Rhinichthys atratulus'', the blacknose dace. ''Rhinichthys'' speci ...

'', the blacknose dace. ''Rhinichthys'' species range throughout

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. One of species in this genus, the loach minnow, is considered Vulnerable. It also includes the extinct

Las Vegas dace The Las Vegas dace (''Rhinichthys deaconi'') was a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. It was found only in the Las Vegas Valley in the United States. It was declared extinc ...

, which was only first described in 1984 and had been declared extinct by 1986. The

cheat minnow The cheat minnow is a hybrid demersal, freshwater fish endemic to the United States, most commonly found in the Ohio River basin. Originally considered the only species in the genus ''Pararhinichthys'' as ''Pararhinichthys bowersi'', more recent s ...

(''Pararhinichthys bowersi''), a natural

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

of the longnose dace (''R. cataractae'') and the

river chub A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it r ...

(''Nocomis micropogon''), was formerly placed in this genus, but is now considered by some authorities to be valid under ''

Pararhinichthys The cheat minnow is a hybrid demersal, freshwater fish endemic to the United States, most commonly found in the Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern Uni ...

'', although this is regarded as a synonyms of ''Rhinichthys'' by ''

Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes Catalog of Fishes is a comprehensive on-line database and reference work on the scientific names of fish species and genera. It is global in its scope and is hosted by the California Academy of Sciences. It has been compiled and is continuously up ...

''. The riffle daces are a basal lineage in an insufficiently resolved

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

of American

. Such a group had been proposed on

anatomical Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

evidence, and was verified using

mtDNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the DNA contained in ...

12S rRNA Mitochondrially encoded 12S ribosomal RNA (often abbreviated as 12S or 12S rRNA) is the SSU rRNA of the mitochondrial ribosome. In humans, 12S is encoded by the ''MT-RNR1'' gene and is 959 nucleotides long. MT-RNR1 is one of the 37 genes conta ...

sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is cal ...

Species

These are the currently valid species included in this genus: * ''

'' ( Hermann, 1804) (Eastern blacknose dace) * ''

Rhinichthys cataractae The longnose dace (''Rhinichthys cataractae'') is a freshwater minnow native to North America. ''Rhinicthys'' means snout fish (reference to the long snout) and ''cataractae'' means of the cataract (first taken from Niagara Falls). Longnose dace ...

'' (

Valenciennes Valenciennes (, also , , ; ; or ; ) is a communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced ...

, 1842) (Longnose dace) * '' Rhinichthys deaconi'' R. R. Miller, 1984 (Las Vegas dace) * '' Rhinichthys evermanni'' Snyder, 1908 (Umpqua dace) * '' Rhinichthys falcatus'' ( C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1893) (Leopard dace) * ''

Rhinichthys gabrielino The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . In the precolonial era, the people lived in as many as 100 villages and primarily identified by ...

'' Moyle, Buckmaster & Su, 2023 (Santa Ana speckled dace) * ''

Rhinichthys klamathensis ''Rhinichthys'', known as the riffle daces, is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. The type species is ''Rhinichthys atratulus'', the blacknose dace. ''Rhinichthys'' specie ...

'' ( Evermann &

Meek Meekness is an attribute of human nature and behavior that has been defined as an amalgam of righteousness, inner humility, and patience. Meekness has been contrasted with humility alone insomuch as humility simply refers to an attitude towards o ...

, 1898) (Western speckled dace) * ''

Rhinichthys nevadensis ''Rhinichthys'', known as the riffle daces, is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. The type species is ''Rhinichthys atratulus'', the blacknose dace. ''Rhinichthys'' specie ...

'' Gilbert, 1893 (Desert speckled dace) * '' Rhinichthys obtusus''

Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he recei ...

, 1854 (Western blacknose dace) * '' Rhinichthys osculus'' (Girard, 1856) (Speckled dace) * '' Rhinichthys umatilla'' ( C. H. Gilbert & Evermann, 1894) (Umatilla dace)

References

{{Authority control Pogonichthyinae Taxa named by Louis Agassiz