Chinese paddlefish-one of the world’s largest freshwater fish just went extinct.
According to a new study published in the Science of The Total Environment, nicknamed the “water tiger” and “panda of the Yangtze,” the Chinese paddlefish ( Psephurus gladius ) is reportedly dead after surviving 150 million years.
Facts
- It’s populations began to decline in the late 1970s as a result of overfishing and habitat fragmentation.
- The fish went functionally extinct (could not reproduce) in 1993 before disappearing completely sometime between 2005 and 2010, the study said. The last live specimen was observed in 2003. Functionally extinct refers to when a species no longer has enough individual members to produce future generations or play a role in the ecosystem.
- It was an iconic species, measuring up to 7 m in length.
- The largest Chinese paddlefish recorded was 23 ft long and weighed over several thousand pounds.
- The IUCN Red List has listed the Chinese paddlefish as “critically endangered” since the 1990s.
- The only living species of paddlefish is the American paddlefish.
