Cyprinella whipplei Girard, 1856
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
Cyprinella whipplei, the steelcolor shiner, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish in the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. This species found in North America. It is common throughout the Mississippi River basin and in the Black Warrior River system in Alabama.
Adults may reach a maximum size of 16 cm (6.3 in) while mean length is 8.8 cm (3.5 in). The maximum age reported in this species was three years. C. whipplei lives in schools on rocky or sandy floors of creeks and small rivers.
The fish was named in honor of Lieut. Amiel Weeks Whipple (1818–1863), the military engineer/surveyor who led the boundary survey team that collected the type specimen.
Wikipedia contributors, Cyprinella whipplei; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T19:28:35.626829+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Cyprinella whipplei Girard, 1856
- Name authority
- Girard, 1856
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Cypriniformes
- Family
- Cyprinidae
- Genus
- Cyprinella
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: no · Freshwater: yes · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderCypriniformes
- familyCyprinidae Rafinesque, 1815
- subfamilyLeuciscinae Bonaparte, 1835
- genusCyprinella Girard, 1856
- speciesCyprinella whipplei Girard, 1856
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Cyprinella. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Tepehuan ShinerCyprinella alvarezdelvillari Contreras-Balderas & Lozano-Vilano, 1994 | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cyprinella chloristia (Jordan & Brayton, 1878) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cyprinella galactura (Cope, 1868) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Gibbous ShinerCyprinella garmani (Jordan, 1885) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cyprinella labrosa (Cope, 1870) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cyprinella leedsi (Fowler, 1942) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cyprinella lutrensis (Baird & Girard, 1853) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Conchos ShinerCyprinella panarcys (Hubbs & Miller, 1978) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cyprinella pyrrhomelas (Cope, 1870) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Mexican Red ShinerCyprinella rutila (Girard, 1856) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cyprinella spiloptera (Cope, 1867) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cyprinella trichroistia (Jordan & Gilbert, 1878) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Cyprinella whipplii Girard, 1856 Girard, 1856 | synonym |
| Notropis whipplei (Girard, 1856) (Girard, 1856) | synonym |
| Notropis whipplii (Girard, 1856) (Girard, 1856) | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- Girard, C. F. (1856). Researches upon the cyprinoid fishes inhabiting the fresh waters of the United States, west of the Mississippi Valley, from specimens in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, v. 8: 165–213.pp. 1–49,. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:33HJL. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.