Sturgeon

Distribution: Northern Hemisphere

Age of Maturity: Male: 11 to 12 years; Female: 18 to 20 years

Life expectancy: Up to 60 years

Diet: Carnivores

Number of eggs: Up to 2 and a half million eggs

IUCN red list status: 17 of the 25 species are Critically Endangered



The Sturgeon (Acipenseridae) is a fish family that includes 4 different genera and 25 different species. The sturgeon is freshwater fish from the northern hemisphere. Although most of the species keep themselves in freshwater environments all their lives there are a few anadromous species witch means they live at freshwater but might go to the ocean.

There are fossil registers of animals of this family with low differences from the ones that live at the present time that indicates that they are part of a very ancient group of animal.

Although most sturgeons are known to live for around 60 years there are cases of animals with more than 120 years

The main characteristics in this group of animals are the 4 barbells in front of the mouth, a heterocercal tail witch means the upper lobe is larger than the lower lobe, and the presence of “bony-plate” structures instead of scales.

It is a very endangered group due to overfishing, since they have a lifecycle that is very long that creates the problem of to many animals being taken to the number of reproductive active animals.