Acipenser is a genus of sturgeons. With 17 living species (others are only known from fossil remains), it is the largest genus in the order Acipenseriformes. The genus is paraphyletic, containing all sturgeons that do not belong to Huso, Scaphirhynchus, or Pseudoscaphirhynchus, with many species more closely related to the other three genera than they are to other species of Acipenser. They are native to freshwater and estuarine systems of Eurasia and North America, and most species are threatened.[2] Several species also known to enter near-shore marine environments in the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific oceans.

Acipenser
Temporal range: 70.6–Present Ma
Atlantic sturgeon
(Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Acipenseriformes
Family: Acipenseridae
Genus: Acipenser
Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Acipenser sturio
Linnaeus, 1758
Species

17, see text

Synonyms[1]
  • Antacea Bory de St. Vincent 1822 non Rafinesque 1815
  • Antaceus Heckel ex Fitzinger & Heckel 1836 non Bonaparte 1846
  • Dinoctus Rafinesque 1818
  • Ellops Gistl 1848 non Mining 1832
  • Helops Brandt & Ratzeburg 1833 non Agassiz 1846 non Browne 1789 non Fabricius 1775 non Müller 1835
  • Sinosturio Jaekel 1929; Sturio Müller 1836
  • Sturio Rafinesque 1810
  • Acipenser (Sterletus) Rafinesque 1820
  • Sterletus (Rafinesque 1820) Brandt & Ratzeburg 1833
  • Sterleta Güldenstädt 1772
  • Acipenser (Euacipenser) Murgoci 1942
  • Acipenser (Gladostomus) Holly 1936
  • Acipenser (Lioniscus) (Heckel & Fitzinger 1836) Bonaparte 1846
  • Lioniscus Heckel & Fitzinger 1836
  • Acipenser (Parasinosturio) Artyukin 1995
  • Acipenser (Shipa) Brandt 1869

This is an ancient genus, with fossil species known as far back as the Late Cretaceous. In fact, the fossils of two species (A. praeparatorum and A. amnisinferos) are known from mass mortality assemblages immediately following the Chicxulub impact, the beginning of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.[3]

Living species

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There are 17 living species:[2]

Fossil species

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There are 9 species known from fossil remains:[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Acipenseridae" (PDF). Deeplyfish- fishes of the world. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 September 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  2. ^ a b Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Acipenser". FishBase. May 2019 version.
  3. ^ a b c Hilton, E. J.; Grande, L. (2022). "Late Cretaceous sturgeons (Acipenseridae) from North America, with two new species from the Tanis site in the Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota". Journal of Paleontology: 1–29. doi:10.1017/jpa.2022.81.
  4. ^ "Fossilworks: Acipenser". fossilworks.org. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
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