Gila cypha Miller, 1946

Open encyclopedia reference

The humpback chub (Gila cypha) is a federally protected fish that lived originally in fast waters of the Colorado River system in the United States. This species takes its name from the prominent hump between the head and dorsal fin, which is thought to direct the flow of water over the body and help maintain body position in the swift currents of the Colorado River. The body is almost entirely scaleless, retaining only about 80 midlateral scales along the lateral line. The fish is very streamlined, with a thin caudal peduncle and a deeply forked tail. The back is a light olive gray, the sides silver, and the belly white. The dorsal fin usually has 9 rays and the anal fin has 10 or more. Its maximum recorded length is 38 cm. The humpback chub mostly consumes invertebrates and to a lesser extent other fish, at all levels from the bottom to the surface. The species spawns from April through June, at water temperatures of 19–21 °C (66–70 °F).

Wikipedia contributors, Humpback chub; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T22:36:33.545262+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Gila cypha Miller, 1946

Name authority

Miller, 1946

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Teleostei

Order

Cypriniformes

Family

Cyprinidae

Genus

Gila

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.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. gigaclassActinopterygii
8. superclassActinopteri
9. classTeleostei
10. orderCypriniformes
11. familyCyprinidae Rafinesque, 1815
12. subfamilyLeuciscinae Bonaparte, 1835
13. genusGila Baird & Girard, 1853
14. speciesGila cypha Miller, 1946

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Gila. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 2,547 records assigned to Cyprinidae.

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.

1. Miller, R. R. (1946). Gila cypha, a remarkable new species of cyprinid fish from the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, Arizona. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 36 (12): 409–415. 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:3G2G6. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.