Thursday, April 23, 2009

Another minnow to know






This fish was not collected on our Craig Creek field trip. It is a minnow that reaches ~3inches as an adult. I include multiple photos and illustrations here as we learned yesterday that there is wide variation in color among specimens of the same species in the wild.

Concentrate on learning the diagnostic characteristics (some of which cannot be seen from this side view). For this specimen you should be drawn to its tiny scales, long snout with frenum, inferior mouth, fleshy lips and small terminal barbel at corner of mouth. Bring your hand lens for the next field trip.

What species is this?

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