Death Valley Pupfish | ||||||||||||||
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Death Valley Pupfish, spawning in Salt Creek | ||||||||||||||
Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
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The Death Valley pupfish (Cyprinodon salinus) is a species of fish that is the last known survivor of what is thought to have been an large ecosystem of fish species that lived in Lake Manly which dried-up at the end of the last ice age leaving the present day Death Valley in California. This fish is adapted to the shallow, hot, salty water of a particular part of Salt Creek that flows above ground year-round. A sub-species—Cyprinodon salinus milleri—lives in nearby Cottonball Marsh.