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Chapter 8 Amiidae: Bowfins
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also provides extensive parental care to its young (Reighard 1903). Bowfin populations are considered stable over much of their range, probably because they do not have to migrate long distances to spawn, are perceived to be of only moderate commercial value, and can survive hypoxic water conditions . Bowfin eggs are processed into caviar in some southern states (e.g., Louisiana), and the skull and skeleton are used in almost every comparative vertebrate anatomy class taught in the United States. No ichthyology student ever forgets her or his first view of the striking blue-green spawning colors of a male caught in the spring. DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTION The family Amiidae is restricted to eastern North America and consists of only one extant species. The Bowfin (Amia calva) is a strictly freshwater species that is native to the St. Lawrence, Great Lakes, and Mississippi River basins from Quebec to northern Minnesota and south to the Gulf Coast and on the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains from the Susquehanna River drainage, southeastern Pennsylvania, to the Colorado River, Texas (Fig. 8.3). The Bowfin is still present in all the states and provinces from which it was originally recorded and is considered locally common. Introductions outside of North America are unknown. Inter- and Intraspecific Variation Although the Bowfin was described as new 12 times, all of the names date to the 19th century, and none are considered to represent a valid species (i.e., all are synonyms of Amia calva). In the Kissimmee River drainage, Florida, Bowfin The family Amiidae, the Bowfins, has only one living species , the North American Bowfin (Amia calva), although numerous (about nine genera) fossil Bowfins date back to Early Cretaceous times (118mya). Originally described by Linnaeus (1766) from a specimen sent to him from Charleston, South Carolina, this morphologically distinctive fish has ≥11 recognized synonyms (Jordan & Evermann 1896; Eschmeyer & Fricke 2011). The species reaches a size of 109cm TL (43 inches) and 9.8kg (21.5 pounds). The origin of the genus name (Amia) is somewhat enigmatic but is apparently an old name for some kind of fish, possibly the Atlantic Bonito (Sarda sarda) (Jordan & Evermann 1896); “amia” is a Greek word meaning tunny (i.e., Tunas, Mackerels, Bonitos). The Bowfin has almost no resemblance to any member of the Scombridae (Mackerels and Tunas) (Fig. 8.1). “Calva” means bald or smooth, probably in reference to the scaleless head. The common name Bowfin derives from the long dorsal fin that undulates in ribbon-like (bow-like) waves. The Bowfin also goes by many other vernacular names (e.g., dogfish, mudfish, grindle , grunnel, lake lawyer, cypress trout, choupique [in Cajun French], and shoepick [in American English]), but its common name has been stable in the academic community for more than a century. The Bowfin is an effective predator in lowland streams, rivers, oxbow and glacial lakes, ponds, ditches, sloughs, and swamps where there is abundant cover (e.g., submerged logs, fallen timber, submerged vegetation). Sharp teeth and an ambush behavior usually result in prey being impaled on the teeth and swallowed whole (Fig. 8.2). One of the most unusual aspects of the natural history of the Bowfin is that among our few ancient fish lineages (i.e., Paddlefishes, Polyodontidae; Sturgeons, Acipenseridae; Gars, Lepisosteidae), it is the only nest-building species that Chapter 8 Amiidae: Bowfins Brooks M. Burr and Micah G. Bennett 280 FRESHWATER FISHES OF NORTH AMERICA ied. Analysis of 75 Bowfin sampled from South Carolina to Louisiana and subjected to restriction fragment length polymorphisms in mitochondrial DNA showed two distinctive populations: (1) the eastern population extends from South Carolina to and including the Apalachicola River; (2) the western population is found from the Escambia River to central Mississippi (Bermingham & Avise 1986). Several other fishes showed a similar zoogeographic pattern in this region. were described as uniformly greenish-gray on the dorsum with no reticulated pattern or markings of any kind (Funderburg & Gilbert 1963). The venter was white or yellowishwhite , and the black spot at the base of the caudal fin was lacking in both sexes with no ocellus in the male. Those from the Peace River, Florida, were similar but had a faint black spot on the caudal fin. No further descriptive work is available on these populations, and their status remains unstudFigure 8.1. (A) Adult male Bowfin, Amia calva, in non-breeding colors and (B...