Camm C. Swift

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County · Section of Fishes

Habitat loss, flood control infrastructure, and drought have left most of southern California and northern Baja California’s native freshwater fish near extinction, including the endangered unarmored threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus williamsoni). This subspecies, an unusual morph lacking the typical lateral bony plates of the G. acule...

We discuss the problems associated with beaver disturbance and its effects on conserving the region's native fauna and flora. We refute arguments underlying the claim that beaver is native to the region, and review paleontological, zooarchaeological, and historical survey data from renowned field biologists and naturalists over the past ~160 years...

First records of the Florida Sand darter from Georgia and likely a native population

Abstract.—Fishes of California coastal streams and associated coastal lagoons have adapted to the Mediterranean-style rainfall cycle. Winter rains open the lagoons to the ocean; subsequent lack of rain and seasonal changes in beach dynamics typically closes them for much of the year. Dry and wet season artificial breaching or opening of barrier sand...

A geographically isolated set of southern localities of the formerly monotypic goby genus Eucyclogobius is known to be reciprocally monophyletic and substantially divergent in mito-chondrial sequence and nuclear microsatellite-based phylogenies relative to populations to the north along the California coast. To clarify taxonomic and conservation st...

Locality information used in mapping. These data are mapped in Fig 6, and S1–S3 Figs. (DOCX)

Synonymy and Valid Literature References. (DOCX)

Distribution of E. newberryi from Santa Cruz County to North Santa Barbara County. See S1 Text for mapped data. (TIF)

Size adjusted data for discriminant analyses. (XLSX)

Distribution of E. newberryi in del Norte and Humboldt Counties. See S1 Text for mapped data. (TIF)

Distribution of E. newberryi from Mendocino County to San Mateo County. See S1 Text for mapped data. (TIF)

Measures and counts used in analyses. (XLSX)

Fin ray and vertebral counts from both species of Eucyclogobius. (XLSX)

Free neuromast and shoulder papillae counts from both species of Eucyclogobius. See Fig 2 for location of lines of neuromasts. (XLSX)

The endangered closed-estuary specialist goby genus Eucyclogobius, the tidewater gobies, is the most locally-differentiated vertebrate taxon on the Pacific coast. It is subdivided into regional clades, which are further subdivided into long-isolated entities. Clades and subclades exhibit regionally distinct metapopulation processes. In addition, th...

Mississippi Silversides, Menidia audens, were first recorded in southern California reservoirs and nearby outflows in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1997–2000 they were taken in King Harbor, Redondo Beach, and in 2000 in the Santa Ana River. By 2005–2006 they were found in several other coastal drainages from the San Gabriel River in Orange and...

Abstract Much remains to be understood about the evolutionary history and contemporary landscape genetics of unarmored threespine stickleback in southern California, where populations collectively referred to as Gasterosteus aculeatus williamsoni have severely declined over the past 70? years and are now endangered. We used mitochondrial sequence a...

North Pacific "bay gobies" are phylogenetically subdivided East/West across the Pacific-ecological distinction relating to infaunality evolved in parallel on both coasts. In the17 primarily estuarine eastern Pacific species, diversity is high on the California Coast and higher still in the Gulf of California. Bay Goby species prefer discrete types...

The primarily estuarine North Pacific "bay gobies" include approximately 17 eastern Pacific temperate and subtropical species. Diversity is high on the California Coast and higher still in the Gulf of California. These species prefer discrete types of estuarine habitat. The federally endangered tidewater goby (Eucyclogobius newberryi) is exclusive...

The North Pacific "bay gobies" (Gobiidae: Gobionellinae) include approximately 17 eastern Pacific temperate and subtropical largely estuarine species with the greatest diversity found from California to the Gulf of California. These species prefer discrete types of estuarine habitat. The federally endangered tidewater goby, Eucyclogobius newberryi,...

Since the mid-1970s San Mateo Creek lagoon (4-6 ha), northern San Diego County, CA, was sampled to monitor populations of the federally endangered tidewater goby, Eucyclogobius newberryi, and to remove non-native aquatic species. Sampling frequency increased from 1996-2008. Six other nearby lagoons (0.5-70 ha) were sampled from 1996 to 2002. All of...

Substantial genetic and subtle morphological characters document that the Delta Mudsucker or chupalodo delta, Gillichthys detrusus Gilbert and Scofield, 1898, family Gobiidae, is a valid species separate from its widespread sister species, the Longjaw Mudsucker, G. mirabilis Cooper, 1864. This species was erroneously placed in the synonymy of G. mi...

Habitat degradation affects native stream fish populations worldwide. We examined the impact of fluctuation in environmental variables on the population dynamics of the federally threatened Santa Ana sucker, Catostomus santaanae, in the Santa Ana River, California through: 1) annual quantitative surveys of C. santaanae abundance and habitat at thre...

The federally endangered tidewater goby, Eucyclogobius newberryi, is the most locally differentiated vertebrate with marine dispersal on the California Coast. It inhabits seasonally closed estuaries along the California coast; a habitat heavily impacted by anthropogenic filling and artificial opening, and exhibits varied metapopulation behavior as...

Larval series of the Santa Ana sucker, Catostomus santaanae (Federally Threatened), arroyo chub, Gila orcutti (California Species of Special Concern), and Santa Ana speckled dace, Rhinichthys osculus (California Species of Special Concern) are described from wild-caught specimens from the Los Angeles and Santa Ana river drainages. Santa Ana sucker...

It is paradigmatic in marine species that greater dispersal ability often, but not always, results in greater gene flow and less population structure. Some of the exceptions may be attributable to studies confounded by comparison of species with dissimilar evolutionary histories, i.e. co-occurring species that are not closely related or species tha...

The tidewater goby (Eucyclogobius newberryi), an endangered species in the United States, occurs in a series of isolated coastal wetlands in California. Using historical presence-absence data and our own surveys, we estimated annual rates of extirpation and recolonization for several populations of the goby in southern California. As predicted, lar...

Before-and-after surveys at several southern California sites indicated that populations of endangered tidewater goby Eucyclogobius newberryi persisted through heavy flooding in 1995. This was contrary to our expectations that flooding might have led to extirpation in some smaller wetlands. There was also no significant change in tidewater goby den...

During a study of Dark-rumped Petrel (Pterodroma phaeopygia) breeding biology in the Galápagos Islands, we collected over 80 samples of food regurgitated by petrel chicks. We identified the prey to the lowest possible taxonomic level and determined the relative importance of each food class in the petrel's diet. We also monitored the daily changes...

Vita. Thesis--The Florida State University. Bibliography: p. 452-474.

Ingleside Pit is a freshwater pond deposit within one mile of the coast in San Patricio County, Texas. Fossil fishes are represented by the Carcharinidae, Lepisosteidae, Cyprinidae, Ictaluridae, Centrarchidae, and Sciaenidae. Most of the groups are represented by only one or a few isolated elements. Gar remains are referable to Lepisosteus cf. spat...