How to translate text using browser tools
1 October 2013 A Remarkable Species Flock of Cyprinodon Pupfishes Endemic to San Salvador Island, Bahamas
Christopher H. Martin, Peter C. Wainwright
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Two new species of Cyprinodon are described, both restricted to saline lakes on a single island in the Bahamas. Both species have unique morphological features and specialized diets that distinguish them from the third Cyprinodon species on San Salvador Island, C. variegatus, and all other pupfishes. Cyprinodon desquamator, n. sp., is a scale-eating specialist with a greatly enlarged lower jaw and elongated body. Cyprinodon brontotheroides, n. sp., is a hard-shelled prey specialist with a protruding nasal region encasing its upper jaw, a unique appendage within Cyprinodontiformes. Both specialist species occur in syntopy with C. variegatus and Gambusia hubbsi in several shallow, hypersaline lakes on San Salvador. Geological age estimates for these lakes place the age of this species flock at 10,000 years or less. Thus, in addition to Laguna Chichancanab, this study describes species within a second remarkable species flock of specialized Cyprinodon pupfishes.

© 2013 Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University.
Christopher H. Martin and Peter C. Wainwright "A Remarkable Species Flock of Cyprinodon Pupfishes Endemic to San Salvador Island, Bahamas," Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 54(2), 231-241, (1 October 2013). https://doi.org/10.3374/014.054.0201
Received: 1 February 2013; Accepted: 1 July 2013; Published: 1 October 2013
KEYWORDS
Adaptive radiation
Caribbean
ecological novelty
ecological speciation
pupfish
species description
species flock
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top