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} <br />DI:SCRIPTIO~T <br />XYrauchen is one of three monotypic genera in the family <br />Catostomidae. The razorback sucker was originally described in <br />1860 as Catostomus texanus from a mounted specimen collected from <br />the "Colorado and New rivers", Arizona (Abbott 1861). Eigenmann <br />and Kirsch (Kirsch 1889) subsequently described Xvrauchen and <br />placed the humpback sucker (=razorback sucker), Xvrauchen <br />texanus, in this genus. Jordan (1891) described the Uncompahgre <br />humpback sucker, Xyrauchen uncompahgre Jordan and Evermann, from <br />a single specimen collected from the Uncompahgre River near <br />Delta, Colorado, in 1889. This form was re-examined, and Hubbs <br />and Miller (1953) concluded that the Uncompahgre sucker <br />represented a hybrid of flannelmouth sucker, Catostomus <br />latipinnis, and razorback sucker. More complete synonomies for <br />razorback sucker were provided by LaRivers (1962) and Minckley <br />(1973). <br />Descriptive meristic and morphological characters presented <br />by Abbott (1861), Ellis (1914), Hubbs and Miller (1953), Minckley <br />(1973, 1983), Moyle (1976), Snyder (1981), and Snyder and Muth <br />(1990) are summarized here. The razorback sucker is <br />distinguished from all other catostomids by an abruptly rising, <br />bony, dorsal keel immediately posterior to the occiput. Body <br />shape is elongate, fairly robust, and somewhat laterally <br />compressed,---..and the caudal peduncle is short and deep. Enlarged <br />interneural bones form the distinctive keel-like nape; hence the <br />4 <br />