American paddlefish: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the American paddlefish lives – recorded in 1 country, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Polyodon spathula
Group	Bony fish
Status	Vulnerable (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	1 country
Continents	North America
Class	Ray-finned fish
Order	Acipenseriformes
Family	Polyodontidae

Where does the American paddlefish live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the American paddlefish in 1 country or territory across North America.

United States

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

Is the American paddlefish endangered?

The American paddlefish’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Vulnerable” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the American paddlefish?

The American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) is a ray-finned fish in the order Acipenseriformes and the family Polyodontidae, genus Polyodon. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the American paddlefish

The American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula), also known as a Mississippi paddlefish, spoon-billed cat, or spoonbill, is a species of ray-finned fish. It is the last living species of paddlefish (Polyodontidae). This family is most closely related to the sturgeons; together they make up the order Acipenseriformes, which are one of the most basal living groups of ray-finned fish. Fossil records of other paddlefish species date back 125 million years to the Early Cretaceous, with records of Polyodon extending back 65 million years to the early Paleocene. The American paddlefish is a smooth-skinned freshwater fish with an almost entirely cartilaginous skeleton and a paddle-shaped rostrum (snout), which extends nearly one-third its body length. It has been referred to as a freshwater shark because of its heterocercal tail or caudal fin resembling that of sharks, though it is not closely related. The American paddlefish is a highly derived fish because it has evolved specialised adaptations, such as filter feeding. Its rostrum and cranium are covered with tens of thousands of sensory receptors for locating swarms of zooplankton, its primary food source. The only other species of paddlefish that survived to modern times was the Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius), last sighted in 2003 in the Yangtze River in China and considered to have gone extinct no later than 2010.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article American paddlefish (revision 1355734325), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q827142 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).