Big-head schizothoracin
The big-head schizothoracin is a species of fish that belongs to the family Cyprinidae. Today it is found only in the Bosten Lake and the Yarkand River.
The big-head schizothoracin or the Aspiorhynchus laticeps laticeps is an endangered species of fish that is native and endemic to the Tarim Basin. It is found nowhere else on Earth, naturally. Its entire evolutionary history is limited to the isolated water systems in the Xinjiang region of China.
All of the rivers in the Tarim Basin drain inward and eventually dissipate into the Taklamakan desert rather than flowing out to an ocean, because the Tarim Basin is an Endorheic Basin. This geological isolation allowed fish to evolve as a unique, completely distinct genus.
Historically, the big-head schizothoracin is a fresh water fish that thrived in major connected bodies of water within the basin, such water bodies is the Tarim River channel.
This fish is an endemic and near-extinction. Mostly found in the higher altitudes, upper reaches of rivers, the laticeps has a long, slightly flattened body, a round abdomen, and a large head that is flattened at the front. It is a large-size cyprinid (reaching the maximum total length of 200 cm). Today it is one of the threatened fishes of the world.
