mountain whitefish
Prosopium williamsoni (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
The mountain whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni) is one of the most widely distributed salmonid fish of western North America. It is found from the Mackenzie River drainage in Northwest Territories, Canada through western Canada and the northwestern USA in the Pacific, Hudson Bay and upper Missouri River basins to the Truckee River drainage in Nevada and Sevier River drainage in Utah.
Wikipedia contributors, Mountain whitefish; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:28:54.653612+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Prosopium williamsoni (Girard, 1856)
- Name authority
- (Girard, 1856)
- Common name
- mountain whitefish
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Salmoniformes
- Family
- Salmonidae
- Genus
- Prosopium
- 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
- orderSalmoniformes
- familySalmonidae Cuvier, 1816
- subfamilyCoregoninae Bonaparte, 1845
- genusProsopium Jordan, 1878
- speciesProsopium williamsoni (Girard, 1856)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Prosopium. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Prosopium abyssicola (Snyder, 1919) | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| round whitefishProsopium cylindraceum (Pennant, 1784) | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| pygmy whitefishProsopium coulterii (Eigenmann & Eigenmann, 1892) | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Prosopium gemmifer (Snyder, 1919) | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Prosopium spilonotus (Snyder, 1919) | SalmonidaeChordata | 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 |
|---|---|
| Prosopium oregonium (Jordan & Snyder, 1909) (Jordan & Snyder, 1909) | synonym |
| Coregonus williamsoni Girard, 1856 Girard, 1856 | synonym |
| Coregonus oregonius Jordan & Snyder, 1909 Jordan & Snyder, 1909 | 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.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=567546 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:789K7. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.