Shovel-nosed Sturgeon 



Terre Haute, were i to 4 feet long and weighed only 3 to 12 

 pounds! 



The female shovel-nose, as is the case with all other stur- 

 geons, is usually considerably larger than the male. The flesh 

 finds a ready sale, it being cut into steaks or smoked. The roe, 

 however, is the most valuable part of the fish, and, though the 

 amount furnished by a single fish is not large, it is highly prized, 

 it being made into caviar. Not until recently has it been utilized 

 for this purpose, but now the more progressive fishermen in the 

 Mississippi Valley are careful to save the roe of both the shovel- 

 nose and the paddle-fish, as well as that of the common lake 

 sturgeon. 



Head 4; depth 8; snout i^; eye very small; D. 32; A. 20; 

 dorsal shields 15 to 20; lateral 41 to 46; ventral n to 13. Body 

 elongate, tapering into a slender, depressed tail, which is extended 

 beyond the caudal (in in a slender filament, very long in the 

 young, but usually lost in the adult; bony shields opisthocen- 

 trous (i. e., with the spine behind the middle), sharply keeled, 

 the series confluent below the dorsal, obliterating the smaller 

 plates between; 2 occipital plates, each with a short keel; a 

 preocular spine and one at the posterior edge of the "shovel"; 

 a few spines on the snout in the young; barbels nearer mouth 

 than tip of snout; none of the fulcra enlarged; dorsal and anal 

 small; the anal little more than half length of dorsal and entirely 

 behind it; gillrakers small and lamellate, ending in 3 or 4 points. 

 Colour, pale yellowish olive. 



