American Paddlefish

freshwater fish · ancient lineage · weird adaptation

Paddle-shaped snout. The American paddlefish has a long, flat snout that can stretch nearly one-third of its entire body length. This paddle is covered with tens of thousands of tiny sensory receptors that help it find and catch zooplankton, which are microscopic creatures floating in the water.

Shark-like but different. Because of its shark-like tail and smooth skin, people sometimes call it a freshwater shark. However, it is not actually related to sharks at all, and instead is more closely related to sturgeons.

Living fossil. Paddlefish have been around for over 125 million years, since the time of the dinosaurs in the Early Cretaceous period. The American paddlefish is now the only paddlefish species left in the entire world.

Filter feeding master. Instead of hunting individual fish like most predators, the American paddlefish opens its mouth wide and swallows water full of zooplankton, then filters out the water through its gills. This is a super specialized way of eating that took millions of years to perfect.

Last of its kind. There used to be another paddlefish species in China's Yangtze River, but it disappeared and was declared extinct by 2010, leaving the American paddlefish as the only surviving member of its entire family.