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🐟Chinese paddlefish
The Chinese paddlefish, also known as the Chinese swordfish, is an extinct species of fish that was formerly native to the Yangtze and Yellow River basins in China. With records of specimens over 3.6 metres (12 ft) and possibly 7 m (23 ft) in length, it was one of the largest species of primarily freshwater fish. It was the only species in the genus Psephurus and one of two recent species of paddlefish (Polyodontidae), the other being the still-living American paddlefish. The species was not a strictly freshwater fish, with individuals having migrated down the Yangtze into the sea as juveniles, where they spent time in coastal waters, before returning into the river by adulthood, and migrating upriver to spawn. Unlike the American paddlefish, which is a filter feeder on plankton, the Chinese paddlefish was a piscivorous predator that primarily consumed small to medium-sized fish.
Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
IUCN Red List assessment, 2022.
- Body mass
- 300 kg
- Body length
- 3 m
- Shoulder height
- not recorded
- Top speed
- not recorded
- Bite force
- not recorded
- Maximum lifespan
- not recorded
This animal is extinct
Assessed Extinct on the IUCN Red List, 2022. Everything on this page — the measurements, the photos, the videos — is a record of an animal that is gone.
Everything we know about the Chinese paddlefish
Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.
Body mass300 kgmaximum recordedFishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Body length3 mmaximum recordedFishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Trophic level4.15FishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04, estimate table · CC BY-NC 4.0
DietcarnivoreaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
From trophic level 4.15 (FishBase): <2.2 herbivore, 2.2–2.8 omnivore, >2.8 carnivore.
Danger to humansharmlessFishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Volume l300 LaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.
average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.
Not recorded for Chinese paddlefish yet: shoulder height, top speed, bite force, maximum lifespan.
Family tree
- kingdomAnimalia
- ›phylumChordata
- ›orderAcipenseriformes
- ›familyPolyodontidae
- ›genusPsephurus
- ›speciesPsephurus gladius
- superclassRay-finned fish · Actinopterygii
- subfamilyPolyodontinae
- tribePsephurini
- genusPsephurus
All 14 branches ↓Fewer branches ↑
- kingdomMetazoa
- phylumChordata
- subphylumCraniata
- subphylumVertebrata
- superclassGnathostomata
- superclassRay-finned fish · Actinopterygii
- classActinopteri
- subclassChondrostei
- orderAcipenseriformes
- suborderAcipenseroidei
- familyPolyodontidae
- subfamilyPolyodontinae
- tribePsephurini
- genusPsephurus
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