﻿PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 100 Washington : 1950 No. 3267 



A REVIEW OF THE AMERICAN CLUPEID FISHES OF THE 

 GENUS DOROSOMA 



By Robert Rush Miller 



The clupeid fishes of the genus Dorosoma Rafinesque, or gizzard 

 shads, range from Nebraska, Minnesota, and the Great Lakes-St. 

 Lawrence River drainages, and from about latitude 40° on the Atlantic 

 seaboard of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, southward along the main- 

 land of North America to Nicaragua, with a single representative in 

 the Pacific drainage of northwestern Mexico. They comprise four 

 known species: D. cepedianum, of Canada, Eastern United States, 

 and northeastern Mexico; D. anale, of southeastern Mexico and north- 

 ern Guatemala; D. chavesi, of the Great Lakes of Nicaragua; and 

 D. smithi, of Sonora and Sinaloa, northwestern Mexico. 



The gizzard shads are essentially fresh-water fishes, although D, 

 cepedianum frequents brackish water and, rarely, salt water. They 

 receive their common name from the short, muscular stomach, which 

 resembles the gizzard of a fowl. Their feeding habits are correlated 

 with this structure and with the extremely fine gill rakers, the long, 

 convoluted small intestine, and the accessory pharyngeal pockets. 

 Although held in low regard as a food fish, Dorosoma serves admirably 

 in nature by utilizing food derived largely from muddy bottoms and 

 thereby converting this waste material into a food supply for game 

 fishes. Its value in this respect, however, appears to be limited 

 largely to the young stages (Lagler and Applegate, 1943). 



The present study was undertaken to determine the more precise 

 systematic characters and variation within the genus, to provide 

 preliminary data on changes with growth, and to cast further light 

 upon the origin and relationships of the species. All the type material 

 of the three southern species (anale, chavesi, and smithi) was carefully 



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