| Bonytail chub | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Cypriniformes |
| Family: | Cyprinidae |
| Genus: | Gila |
| Species: | G. elegans
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| Binomial name | |
| Gila elegans S. F. Baird & Girard, 1853
| |
The bonytail chub or bonytail (Gila elegans) is a cyprinid freshwater fish native to the Colorado River basin of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the southwestern United States;[2] it has been extirpated from the part of the basin in Mexico.[1] It was once abundant and widespread in the basin, its numbers and range have declined to the point where it has been listed as endangered since 1980 (ESA) and 1986 (IUCN),[1][3] a fate shared by the other large Colorado basin endemic fish species like the Colorado pikeminnow, humpback chub, and razorback sucker. It is now the rarest of the endemic big-river fishes of the Colorado River. There are 20 species in the genus Gila,[4] seven of which are found in Arizona.
- ^ a b c NatureServe (2020) [errata version of 2013 assessment]. "Gila elegans". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2013: e.T9186A174778584. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T9186A174778584.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Gila elegans". FishBase. February 2017 version.
- ^ "Bonytail chub (Gila elegans)". US Fish and Wildlife Service. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
- ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Gila". FishBase. February 2017 version.