paddlefish

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paddlefish

fish species

Also known as: American paddlefish, Mississippi paddlefish, Polyodon spathula, spoonbill

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

paddlefish, (Polyodon spathula), archaic freshwater fish with a paddlelike snout, a wide mouth, smooth skin, and a cartilaginous skeleton. A relative of the sturgeon, the paddlefish makes up the family Polyodontidae in the order Acipenseriformes. A paddlefish feeds with its mouth gaping open and its gill rakers straining plankton from the water through its gills. The American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula), also called the Mississippi paddlefish or spoonbill, is greenish or gray and averages about 18 kg (40 pounds); however, some specimens can grow up to 2.2 metres (7.2 feet) long and 90.7 kg (200 pounds) in weight. It lives in ...(100 of 240 words)

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