speckled dac
Rhinichthys osculus (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.
Speckled dace in Lake Quinault at the mouth of Gatton Creek. Photo Credit Roger Tabor (USFWS)
USFWS - Pacific Region · Public domain · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The speckled dace (Rhinichthys osculus), also known as the spotted dace and the carpita pinta, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. It is found in temperate freshwater in North America, from Sonora, Mexico, to British Columbia, Canada.
Speckled dace have a variety of unofficial names. Some of these include western dace, pacific dace, spring dace, and dusky dace. Dace is derived from the Middle English word that means dart.
Wikipedia contributors, Speckled dace; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:58:39.337942+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Rhinichthys osculus (Girard, 1856)
- Name authority
- (Girard, 1856)
- Common name
- speckled dac
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Cypriniformes
- Family
- Cyprinidae
- Genus
- Rhinichthys
- 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
- genusRhinichthys Agassiz, 1849
- speciesRhinichthys osculus (Girard, 1856)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Rhinichthys. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| blacknose daceRhinichthys atratulus (Hermann, 1804) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Loach MinnowRhinichthys cobitis (Girard, 1856) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Western blacknose daceRhinichthys obtusus Agassiz, 1854 | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Umatilla daceRhinichthys umatilla (Gilbert & Evermann, 1894) | CyprinidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
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.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=592846 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.
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:4S7V3. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.