Paddlefish

Paddlefish Mystery in Western North Carolina

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Paddlefish, Polyodon spathula, is a unique and ancient fish species with no close relatives in North America (Figure 1). This prehistoric monster has been part of the Upper Tennessee River Basin fish community for millennia, if not longer. Unfortunately, their numbers have dwindled across their range over the last 100+ years due to damming, overfishing, … Read more

Monospecific Families of Freshwater Fishes with no Saltwater Relatives Found in North Carolina

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By the NCFishes.com Team There are 12 families of predominantly freshwater fishes that are monospecific (having only one species) in North Carolina (Table 1; Tracy et al. 2020). [Please note: Tracy et al. (2020) may be downloaded for free at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/sfcproceedings/vol1/iss60/1.] The Family Xenocyprididae (the single species of Grass Carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella) was previously discussed … Read more