Date:11-7-23
Happy Tuesday everyone! Today's fish of the day is the American paddlefish!
The American paddlefish, also known by names such as: spoon-billed cat, spoonbill, mississippi paddlefish, and scientific name Polyodon spathula is a fish known for being very old. Dating back as far as 125 million years, paddlefish first found records are from the Lower Cretaceous, with the Polodon family first appearing 65 years ago in the Pliocene. They were once considered to be freshwater sharks due to the similar back fins. The American paddlefish is the last living species of paddlefish in the world, with the only other modern paddlefish being the Chinese paddlefish, which was declared extinct in 2022, with an extinction date "no later than 2010" but estimated as early as 2005, with the last sighting in 2003.
Their skeletons are almost entirely cartilaginous, and the paddle shaped nose is used for filter feeding. The rostrum (paddle) makes up a third of the entire body length of the fish, and is covered in 10's of thousands of hyper sensitive receptors, used for sensing the presence of zooplankton, which their diet is almost entirely made of. This rostrum is not formed well in the egg, and rather is formed in the adolescence of paddlefish, being fully sized by sexual maturity. They can be found primarily in the Mississippi river and tributaries, spread across 22 states in America. They make up some of the largest freshwater fish in America, getting as large as 5 feet, and living up to 30 years.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:American_paddlefish_filter_feeding.webm