Empetrichthys merriami Gilbert, 1893
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
The Ash Meadows killifish (Empetrichthys merriami) is a species of killifish from the subfamily Empetrichthyinae, part of the family Goodeidae, which was first documented by C. H. Gilbert in 1893 and historically occupied numerous springs near Ash Meadows, Nye County, Nevada, United States. This species was last seen in 1948 and is believed to have gone extinct in the early 1950s, likely as a result of habitat alteration and competition with and predation by introduced crayfish Procambarus clarkii, mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis), black mollies (Poecilia sphenops), and bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana).
The common name of the genus Empetrichthys has since been changed from killifish to poolfish.
The specific name honours the American naturalist and physician C. Hart Merriam (1855–1942), who led the Death Valley (California, USA) expedition, during which he and Vernon Orlando Bailey (1864–1942) co-collected the type.
Wikipedia contributors, Ash Meadows killifish; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T19:35:11.856009+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Empetrichthys merriami Gilbert, 1893
- Name authority
- Gilbert, 1893
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Cyprinodontiformes
- Family
- Goodeidae
- Genus
- Empetrichthys
- 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
- orderCyprinodontiformes
- familyGoodeidae Jordan & Gilbert, 1883
- subfamilyEmpetrichthyinae Jordan, Evermann & Clark, 1930
- genusEmpetrichthys Gilbert, 1893
- speciesEmpetrichthys merriami Gilbert, 1893
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Empetrichthys. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Empetrichthys latos Miller, 1948 | GoodeidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
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.
- Gilbert, C. H. (1893). Report on the fishes of the Death Valley expedition collected in southern California and Nevada in 1891, with descriptions of new species. U. S. Dept. Of Agriculture. North American Fauna, No. 7: 229–234, Pls. 5–6. https://doi.org/10.3996/nafa.7.0003 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:39HKL. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.