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TITLE: Terminal Pleistocene-Early Holocene fishes from Tulare Lake, San Joaquin Valley, California with comments on the evolution of Sacramento Squawfish (Ptychocheilus grandis: Cyprinidae)
AUTHOR: Kenneth W. Gobalet and Gerrit L. Fenenga
JOURNAL: PaleoBios
PUBLISHED: May 24, 1993
NOTES: 15(1)
ABSTRACT: The fossil remains of nine species of fishes have been recovered from a late Pleistocene - early Holocene archaeological site on the ancient shores of Tulare Lake, California. The fragmentary, highly mineralized remains are from a sturgeon {Acipenser sp.), Sacramento perch (Centrarchidae: Archoplites interruptus), tule perch (Embiotocidae: Hysterocarpus traskii), Sacramento sucker (Catostomidae: Catostomus occidentals), and the following minnows (Cyprinidae): Sacramento squawfish {Ptychocheilus grandis), hitch (Lavinia exilicauda), Sacramento blackfish {Orthodon microlepidotus), splittail {Pogonichthys maerolepidotus), and thicktail chub {Gila crassicaudd). Sacramento squawfish in Tulare Lake attained a size in excess of 900 mm in standard length. These remains verify that the assemblage of native species known from the lowland Central Valley of California was in place at least by the end of the Pleistocene and that the species diversity was not greater than at present. No unexpected species were recovered and no additional species supporting a link with the Pliocene Snake River or Lake Idaho were present. The late Pleistocene extinctions that decimated the mammalian megafauna spared the freshwater fishes.
COLLECTION: PaleoBios Archive Public
ID: 177

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    BNHM      University of California, Berkeley