Rio Grande cutthroat trout
| Rio Grande cutthroat trout | |
|---|---|
| From the Conejos watershed in southern Colorado | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Salmoniformes |
| Family: | Salmonidae |
| Genus: | Oncorhynchus |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | O. v. virginalis |
| Trinomial name | |
| Oncorhynchus virginalis virginalis (C. F. Girard, 1856) | |
The Rio Grande cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus virginalis virginalis), a member of the family Salmonidae, is found in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado in tributaries of the Rio Grande.
It is one of 9 subspecies of the Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout native to the western United States, and is the state fish of New Mexico. Cutthroat trout were the first New World trout encountered by Europeans when in 1541, Spanish explorer Francisco de Coronado recorded seeing trout in the Pecos River near Santa Fe, New Mexico. These were most likely Rio Grande cutthroat trout (O. v. virginalis).