Desert Pupfish

Fish > Pupfishes

The Desert Pupfish (Cyprinodon macularius) is an astonishing evolutionary marvel of physiological extremotolerance. Thriving in the blistering desert springs and brine pools of the Sonoran Desert where virtually no other fish could survive for seconds, this tiny,...

Lake Sturgeon

Fish > Sturgeons

The Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) is the colossal, ancient monarch of North America’s Great Lakes. Surviving virtually unchanged since the age of the dinosaurs over 150 million years ago, this armored giant is the largest and longest-lived freshwater fish...

Polka Dot Stingray

Fish > Stingrays

The Polka Dot Stingray (Potamotrygon leopoldi), also celebrated as the Xingu River Ray or Black Diamond Ray, is an aristocratic, world-famous freshwater batoid endemic exclusively to the rocky shallows of Brazil’s Xingu River basin. Revered for its breathtaking...

Turquoise Killifish

Fish > Killifishes

The Turquoise Killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) holds an extraordinary biological world record: it is the shortest-lived vertebrate animal known to science. Native to temporary mud pools in the scorching bushveld of Mozambique that evaporate completely within weeks...

South American Lungfish

Fish > Lobe-finned Fishes

The South American Lungfish (Lepidosiren paradoxa), locally known in South America as the Piramboia, is a living fossil that represents one of vertebrate evolution’s most remarkable bridges between fish and terrestrial four-legged animals. Endemic to the...

Bocaccio Rockfish

Fish > Scorpionfishes

The Bocaccio Rockfish (Sebastes paucispinis), affectionately dubbed ‘Bocaccio’ from the Italian word for ‘big mouth,’ is a commercially historic and ecologically prominent scorpaenid native to the cold, nutrient-rich currents of the Northeast...

European Sea Sturgeon

Fish > Sturgeons

The European Sea Sturgeon (Acipenser sturio), also known as the Atlantic Sturgeon or Common Sturgeon, is a magnificent living fossil whose evolutionary lineage dates back over 200 million years to the Jurassic Period. Once abundant across every major waterway in...

Chinese Paddlefish

Fish > Paddlefishes

The Chinese Paddlefish (Psephurus gladius), reverently crowned the ‘King of Freshwater Fish’ and known in China as the ‘Elephant Fish,’ was a legendary, primeval colossus of the Yangtze River basin. Reaching lengths of up to seven meters and...

Giant Pangasius

Fish > Catfishes

The Giant Pangasius (Pangasius sanitwongsei), reclassified by modern taxonomists and known locally in Thailand as ‘Pla Thepa,’ is a colossal, predatory freshwater shark catfish native to the massive river systems of mainland Southeast Asia. Capable of...

Devil’s Hole Pupfish

Fish > Pupfishes

The Devil’s Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) holds the distinction of possessing the smallest, most precarious natural geographic range of any vertebrate on Earth, surviving exclusively within the upper reaches of a single limestone cave in the Mojave Desert...