sturgeon

Acipenser sturio

Once spanning Europe now only the Garonne

Temperate
Restricted distribution
Atlantic Ocean
Africa
Europe
Elongated
Large
Temperate fish

sturgeon is a freshwater fish of Currently restricted only to the Garonne River in France. The species occupies freshwater habitats. Records give a maximum length of 600 cm.

Class: Cartilaginous Ganoids
Order: Sturgeons and Paddlefishes
Family: Acipenseridae
Genus: Acipenser
Maximum length: 600 cm
Body shape: elongated
Distribution: Currently restricted only to the Garonne River in France (Ref. 137675 ). Used to range from Norway to the Bay of Biscay, including the North Sea, European coasts of Atlantic, northern Mediterranean eastward to Rhodos, western and southern Black Sea; occasionally recorded from the White Sea, Iceland, Morocco and Algeria. Anadromous, in most large rivers, but not recorded from Danube upriver of delta. Recent DNA studies using museum specimens revealed that this species co-exists with A. naccarii from the Adriatic Sea to the Iberian Peninsula (Ref. 52173 ). Several DNA sequence differences were found between individuals of the species from the Gironde River population and from the North and Baltic Seas showing that different populations of A. sturio are genetically divergent (Ref. 82476 ).
Conservation status: CRCritically Endangered

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