Endangered
Spikedace
Meda fulgida
Spikedace is a minnow in the family Cyprinidae (order Cypriniformes) — Meda fulgida, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
It usually has a slender body, with a somewhat compressed front, and is strongly compressed at the caudal peduncle, with a fairly pointed snout and contains a slightly subterminal mouth with large eyes. The dorsal fin origin is behind the pelvic fin origin. The scales are present only as small, deeply embedded plates.
The maximum length of the Spikedace rarely exceeds 7.5 cm (3 in).
Range and habitat
Historically, M. Fulgida was common and locally abundant throughout the upper Gila River basin of Arizona and New Mexico. In Arizona, this included the Agua Fria, San Pedro, and San Francisco River systems, and the Gila, Salt and Verde Rivers and major tributaries upstream of present-day Phoenix. In New Mexico, it included San Francisco River, Gila River, and the East, Middle and West Forks of the Gila.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
Kirk Young (AGFD Native Fish Diversity Review 1995) reported four populations in Arizona. Paul Marsh believes a population may be found in the White River that has not yet been surveyed.
Spikedace 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 Spikedace, Wikidata item Q3234006. 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.
