Endangered
Little Colorado spinedace
Lepidomeda vittata
Little Colorado spinedace is a minnow in the family Cyprinidae (order Cypriniformes) — Lepidomeda vittata, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
The Little Colorado spinedace is small, generally less than 10 cm in length. The scales are in a lateral line of usually more than 90. The second spine of the dorsal fin is strong.
The dorsal fin is moderately high and acute, and its depressed length is 5.2 to 5.8 cm predorsal length.
Range and habitat
The Little Colorado spinedace is endemic to the Little Colorado River and north-flowing tributaries, flowing through Coconino, Navajo, and Apache Counties of Arizona. The historical distribution is similar to the current distribution but the species may have possibly historically occurred in the Zuni River watershed south of Gallup, New Mexico. Four populations of spinedace exist in Arizona with populations still found in the mainstream of Little Colorado, Nutrioso Creek, Clear Creek, as well as Chevelon Creek.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
Populations of this species fluctuate dramatically from year to year, and probably reflect cyclic periods of drought and/or increased rainfall. Populations are thought to be declining, even so, due to alteration of habitat through reduced streamflow and interaction with introduced fish species.
Little Colorado spinedace is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Little Colorado spinedace, Wikidata item Q306910. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
