Cuatro Ciénegas
A desert basin of spring-fed pools and channels (pozas) in Coahuila, Mexico — a Ramsar wetland and one of North America's great endemism hotspots. Its endemic cichlid, Herichthys minckleyi, is a celebrated case of trophic polymorphism: a single species with distinct papilliform (soft-food) and molariform (snail-crushing) jaw morphs (Kornfield & Taylor 1983; Hulsey et al. 2005).
- Maximum depth
- —
- Length
- —
- Mixing regime
- Unknown
- Basin
- Cuatro Ciénegas basin (endorheic), Coahuila
- Countries
- Mexico
Where every species has been recorded
5 cichlid species across 4 genera have been georeferenced in the lake, drawn from 1,114 field and museum records. Switch to satellite imagery, or pick a single species to see exactly where it lives.
Occurrence records: GBIF.org (Global Biodiversity Information Facility). Each point is a georeferenced observation or specimen; positions carry the source dataset's own coordinate precision.
Sources
Every number on this page is traceable to peer-reviewed research.
- GBIF.org (2026). GBIF Occurrence Download — Cichlidae, African rift lakes. Global Biodiversity Information Facility, www.gbif.org. link
A shoreline of separate worlds
Cuatro Ciénegas does not have one habitat but a mosaic of them, and the boundaries are sharp. A cichlid adapted to grazing algae off boulders may never cross the few metres of open sand to the next reef — which is exactly why so many species here live nowhere else on Earth.
Mapped habitats
Surveyed habitat data for this lake is not loaded yet.