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The
Leon Springs pupfish (
Cyprinodon bovinus) is a species of
fishFish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
in the Cyprinodontidae family. It is endemic to
TexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where it is limited to
Pecos County, TexasPecos County is a county located in Texas which is named for the Pecos River. It is one of the nine counties that comprise the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas. In 2000, its population was 16,809. The county seat is Fort Stockton....
. It is a federally listed
endangered speciesAn endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
.
This fish was first discovered in 1851 at Leon Springs, near
Fort Stockton, TexasFort Stockton is a city in Pecos County, Texas, United States. The population was 7,846 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Pecos County.-Geography:Fort Stockton is located at ....
. Leon Springs was
impoundedA dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
, poisoned, stocked with game fish, and drained, and the fish was considered
extinctIn biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
by 1938. In the 1960s it was rediscovered at Diamond Y Spring a few miles away. It is also found in the Diamond Y Draw, a
tributaryA tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
of the
Pecos RiverThe headwaters of the Pecos River are located north of Pecos, New Mexico, United States, at an elevation of over 12,000 feet on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County. The river flows for through the eastern portion of that state and neighboring Texas before it...
.
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