In a Class by Itself: the Sturgeon

To be exact, I should have headed this: ‘In a Sub-class by Itself’. We have just been surveying the non-bony fish. Previously we had looked at the more numerous bony fish. Now we come to the sturgeon, of which the skeleton is only bony in part, and which some authorities have therefore placed in a special sub-class of bony fish. One might call it a semi-bony fish.

The sturgeon which swim around today are remarkably similar to the sturgeon of 100 million years ago, as we can tell from the fossilized remains of the latter. Their backbone is cartilaginous; but they have five rows of bony scutes along their bodies and the head is covered with hard bony plates. This same head has a snout, underneath which sprout four barbels. By burrowing with the snout and feeling with the barbels the sturgeon can find its food on the sea or river bottom.