White sturgeon
| White sturgeon | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Acipenseriformes |
| Family: | Acipenseridae |
| Genus: | Acipenser |
| Species: | A. transmontanus |
| Binomial name | |
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Acipenser transmontanus J. Richardson, 1836 |
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The white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), also known as the Pacific sturgeon, Oregon sturgeon, Columbia sturgeon, Sacramento sturgeon, and California white sturgeon, is a sturgeon (a fish of the family Acipenseridae) which lives along the west coast of North America from the Aleutian Islands to Central California.
It is the largest freshwater fish in North America and is the third-largest species of sturgeon, after the beluga and the kaluga. The white sturgeon is known to reach a maximum size of 816 kg (1,799 lb) and 6.1 m (20 ft).
The white sturgeon has a slender, long body, head, and mouth. This fish has no scales; instead, it has large bony scutes that serve as a form of armor. Its 11–14 dorsal scutes are all anterior to the dorsal fin, and 38–48 lateral scutes and 9–12 ventral scutes are on each side. The dorsal color of a white sturgeon is gray, pale olive, or gray-brown. The fins are a dusky, opaque gray. The underside is a clean white. It has four barbels, used for sensing food, near its large, toothless mouth.
Sturgeons are classified as a bony fish, but actually are more cartilaginous than bony, their internal bone structure being more like a shark's. Sturgeon have changed very little since they first appeared over 175 million years ago, thus have the appearance of a very ancient fish.
The white sturgeon lives on the bottom of slow-moving rivers, bays, and estuarine areas, including the brackish water at the mouths of large rivers. Other sturgeon spend most of their time in a marine environment, only coming into rivers to spawn. They are well-adapted to finding food drifting by with their excellent sense of smell and taste. When the food supply is insufficient, sturgeon have been known to move into shallow water to eat freshwater clams.
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Wikipedia