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Acipenser

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Acipenser
Genus of fishes

Acipenser is a genus of sturgeons, containing three species native to freshwater and estuarine systems of eastern North America and Europe. It is the type genus of the family Acipenseridae and the order Acipenseriformes.²

Taxonomy

The genus name Acipenser is Latin for "sturgeon" which is derived from ἀκκιπήσιος akkipesios in Greek from the words akís ἀκίς meaning "point", and πέντε pénte meaning "five" referring to the five rows of sharp scutes found on its body.³ Prior to 2025, Acipenser contained almost all species in the Acipenseridae outside of Huso and the "shovelnose" sturgeons (Scaphirhynchus and Pseudoscaphirhynchus). However, such a placement is now known to be paraphyletic with respect to the other genera, and these species have since been split into Huso and Sinosturio. Acipenser in the strict sense (sensu stricto) has been redefined with only 3 species.⁴

This is an ancient genus, with phylogenetic evidence suggesting that it is the sister lineage to all other sturgeon genera⁴, having diverged from other sturgeons during the Early Cretaceous period. Several fossil species known as far back as the Late Cretaceous, with the fossils of two species (A. praeparatorum and A. amnisinferos) known from mass mortality assemblages thought to immediately follow the Chicxulub impact, the beginning of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.⁵ However, the classification of these fossil species is uncertain under the new taxonomy; for example, "Acipenser" praeparatorum may actually represent a more derived sturgeon related to the Huso-Pseudoscaphirhynchus lineage.⁴

Extant species

The following four species are placed in this genus:²

Acipenser desotoi Vladykov, 1955 (Gulf sturgeon)
Acipenser oxyrinchus Mitchill, 1815 (Atlantic sturgeon)
Acipenser sturio Linnaeus, 1758 (type species) (European sea sturgeon)
Acipencer fulvecens Rafinesque, 1817 (Lake Sturgeon)

Fossil species

The following species are known from fossil remains, under a sensu lato interpretation of the genus. Almost all aside from A. amnisinferos and A. praeparatorum⁶ are thought to be nomina dubia.⁷

†Acipenser albertensis Lambe, 1902 (Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada)
†Acipenser amnisinferos Hilton & Grande, 2023 (Late Cretaceous of North Dakota, USA)⁸
†Acipenser chilini Nessov, 1983 (Early Paleocene of Kazakhstan)
?†Acipenser cretaceous Daimeries, 1892 (Late Cretaceous of Belgium; potentially a teleost)
†Acipenser eruciferus Cope, 1876 (Late Cretaceous of Montana, USA)
†Acipenser gigantissimus Nessov, 1997 (Late Cretaceous of Saratov, Russia)⁹
†Acipenser lemoinei (Priem, 1901) (Early Eocene of France)
?†Acipenser molassicus Probst, 1882 (Miocene of Germany; potentially a chondrichthyan)
†Acipenser ornatus Leidy, 1873 (Miocene of Virginia, USA)
†Acipenser parisiensis Priem, 1908 (Early Oligocene of France)
†Acipenser praeparatorum Hilton & Grande, 2023 (Late Cretaceous of North Dakota, USA)⁸
†Acipenser toliapicus Agassiz 1844 ex 1889 (Early Eocene of England)

References

1"Acipenseridae" (PDF). Deeplyfish- fishes of the world. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 September 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
2Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Acipenser". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
3Scharpf, Christopher (10 December 2025). "Family ACIPENSERIDAE" (PDF). The ETYFish Project. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
4Brownstein, Chase D.; Near, Thomas J. (2025-04-25). "Toward a Phylogenetic Taxonomy of Sturgeons (Acipenseriformes: Acipenseridae)". Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. 66 (1). doi:10.3374/014.066.0101. .

External links

Data related to Acipenser at Wikispecies
Media related to Acipenser at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition of acipenser at Wiktionary

Recent changes

146 revisions in total · 92 contributors · +206 / −121 bytes across 7 edits by 1 contributor in the last 30 days

20 Oct 2026, 20:37 UTCAcipencerI made the dicoveror of Acipencer Fulvencis (Lake Sturgeon) and time of dicovery acurate−24diff
20 Oct 2026, 20:11 UTCAcipencerNo edit summary−49diff
20 Oct 2026, 20:11 UTCAcipencerNo edit summary+65diff
20 Oct 2026, 20:06 UTCAcipencerNo edit summary−48diff
20 Oct 2026, 20:06 UTCAcipencermNo edit summary+72diff
20 Oct 2026, 17:27 UTCAcipencerm§ Extant species+49diff
20 Oct 2026, 17:21 UTCAcipencer§ Extant species+20diff
28 Sept 2026, 18:49 UTCPineflatwoodsClarifying description of phylogenetic relationships and adding citation.+9diff

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