Dr. Peter Moyle has been studying the ecology and conservation of freshwater and estuarine fishes in California for over 50 years. Working with numerous graduate students, postdocs, and colleagues, he has documented the status of all native freshwater fish species in California throughout this period. Since retiring. As Distinguish Professor Emeritus, Dr. Moyle is now focusing on the taxonomy of several cryptic fish species in California’s freshwater systems. This work is tricky since many of the species appear genetically distinct, but are apparently lacking any distinguishing characteristic that allows for a clear-cut description.

Dr. Moyle sums up his taxonomic research on these challenging fish, “Working with grad students and postdocs in Dr. Mike Miller’s genomics laboratory, I am involved in a cooperative study of the genomics of native California fishes in the genera Cottus, Hesperoleucus, Lavinia, and Rhinichthys. Besides determining the intriguing inter-relationships among species in each of the genera, the study is resulting in the description or resurrection of a number of new species. A number of these species may already face extinction, a subject explored in a Bioscience paper (Baumsteiger and Moyle 2017). The first taxonomy paper was published in 2019 (Baumsteiger and Moyle 2019). Work is currently continuing with a revision of California’s speckled dace (Rhinichthys).