Baja California Killifish
Fundulus lima Vaillant, 1894
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 Baja California killifish (Fundulus lima) is a killifish in the family Fundulidae. It is native to the Baja California Peninsula region of northwestern Mexico. This fish was described by L.L. Vaillant in 1894 with the type locality given as San Ignacio de Caracamande in central Baja California.
The Baja California killifishes found in oases, springs, ponds, and creeks which have clear water with low salinity levels and relatively slow flows with substrates consisting of bedrock, sand, and gravel. Their diet is varied by season and is made up of diatoms, insect larvae, and fish scales during the dry season while in the rainy season it is mainly insect larvae, filamentous algae, and ostracods.
Wikipedia contributors, Baja California killifish; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:26:43.323479+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Fundulus lima Vaillant, 1894
- Name authority
- Vaillant, 1894
- Common name
- Baja California Killifish
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Cyprinodontiformes
- Family
- Fundulidae
- Genus
- Fundulus
- 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
- familyFundulidae Günther, 1866
- genusFundulus Lacepède, 1803
- speciesFundulus lima Vaillant, 1894
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Fundulus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Fundulus albolineatus Gilbert, 1891 | FundulidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| giant killifishFundulus grandissimus Hubbs, 1936 | FundulidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| marsh killifishFundulus confluentus Goode & Bean, 1879 | FundulidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| California killifishFundulus parvipinnis Girard, 1854 | FundulidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Fundulus kansae Garman, 1895 | FundulidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Fundulus lineolatus (Agassiz, 1854) | FundulidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Fundulus olivaceus (Storer, 1845) | FundulidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Fundulus notatus (Rafinesque, 1820) | FundulidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| saltmarsh topminnowFundulus jenkinsi (Evermann, 1892) | FundulidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| plains killifishFundulus zebrinus Jordan & Gilbert, 1883 | FundulidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Fundulus blairae Wiley & Hall, 1975 | FundulidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| golden topminnowFundulus chrysotus (Günther, 1866) | FundulidaeChordata | 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 |
|---|---|
| Fundulus meeki Evermann, 1908 Evermann, 1908 | 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.
- Vaillant, L. L. (1894). Sur une collection de poissons recueillie en Basse-Californie et dans le Golfe par M. Léon Diguet. Bulletin de La Société Philomathique de Paris (8th Série), v. 6: 69–75. 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:6K3FX. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.