Correlation between Fish Distribution and Pleistocene Hydrography in Eastern California and Southwestern Nevada, with a Map of the Pleistocene Waters

Abstract

During late Pleistocene time an integrated river system occupied several of the desert basins in eastern California and southwestern Nevada, with Death Valley as the sump. A study of the Recent and fossil fishes of the region supports the physiographic evidence for the existence of this drainage and presents zo6geographic data which strongly suggest connections between this system and the Lahontan basin to the north, as well as with the Colorado River basin to the south and east. Both the physiographic and the fish evidence harmon- ize. Detailed maps of the Pleistocene and Recent hydrography of the southern Great Basin are presented, and two new lakes are mapped and named.