Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for a world without hunger Fisheries Division
Species Fact Sheets Pseudoscaphirhynchus hermanni (Kessler, 1877)
Pseudoscaphirhynchus hermanni: (click for more)
Synonyms Scaphirhynchus hermanni Kessler, 1877 Pseudoscaphirhynchus rossikowi Nikolskii, 1900:258. Pseudoscaphirhynchus hermanni Berg, 1948:105.
FAO Names En - Dwarf sturgeon, Fr - , Sp - . 3Alpha Code: PSN Taxonomic Code: 1170100601
Scientific Name with Original Description Scaphirhynchus hermanni Kessler, 1877:190, Pl.8 (fig.25, 25a-b). The Aralo-Caspian Expedition. IV. Fishes of the Aralo-Caspio-Pontine ichthyological region. Aralo-Caspian Exped. i-xxvii + 1-360. St. Petersburg. Amu Darya R., Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan.
Diagnostic Features Snout depressed, flat, shovel-shaped, longer than in Pseudoscaphirhynchus kaufmanni, and grows longer with age. Caudal peduncle slighly depressed, short, and not completely armored. Rostrum, more rounded than in P. kaufmanni. Spiracle absent. Mouth small, transverse, and lower lip discontinuous, interrupted medially. Branchiostegal connection narrow. The eyes are extremely small. Barbels not fringed and unevently placed. Two outer barbels are 2-3 times longer than the inner ones. Without a long caudal filament. D:27-35; A:15-21 rays. 9-13 (common: 10-11) dorsal scutes; 31-39 (35) lateral scutes; 6-9 (7) ventral scutes. There are 3-4 flat scutes between anal and ventral fins and 1-3 scutes posterior to anal fin. Scutes are not armored with spines, or the spines are very short. Each dorsal and lateral scute covers almost half of the following one. There are granules between the rows of scutes. Rostrum without spines at their tip. Parietal spines absent. Colour: dorsum deep brown, ventrum white (Mayden & Kuhajda, 1996; Birstein, 1997).
FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Geographical Distribution Endemic to the Amu Darya River (middle and lower reaches). Historically rare: in April 1996 three specimens were caught for the first time in the last 15 years (Birstein, 1997). Launch the Aquatic Species Distribution map viewer
Habitat and Biology Practically unknown.
Size Maximum size: 27 cm.
Interest to Fisheries
Local Names POLAND : Nibylopstons amu-daryjski . UZBEKISTAN : Little Amu-Darya sholvelnose sturgeon . UNITED KINGDOM : Small Amu Dar Sholvelnose sturgeon . USA : Dwarf sturgeon , Little sholvelnose sturgeon .
Bibliography Bemis, W. E, E. K. Findeis & L. Grande - 1997. An overview of Acipenseriformes. Environ. Biol. Fishes . v. 48: 25-71.. Berg, L. S - 1948. Fresh-water fishes of Soviet Union and adjacent countries. Freshw. Fish. USSR, Guide Fauna USSR No. 27. . 1-466 .. In Russian. Transl. available, 1962, Smithson. Inst. by Israel Prog. Sci. Transl. Birstein, V.J. - 1993. Sturgeons and paddlefishes: threatened fishes in need of conservation. Conserv. Biol. . 7:773-787.. Birstein, V.J. - 1997. Threatened fishes of the world: Pseudoscaphirhynchus spp. (Acipenseridae). Environ. Biol. Fish. . 48:381-383.. Hilton-Taylor, C. - 2000. 2000 IUCN red list of threatened species. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. . xviii + 61 p.. with 1 CD-ROM. Kamilov, G. & Zh.U. Urchinov - 1995. Fish and fisheries in Uzbekistan under the impact of irrigated agriculture. In T. Petr (ed.) Inland fisheries under the impact of irrigated agriculture: Central Asia. FAO Fisheries Circular No. 894. . 10-41.. Kuhajda, B.R., R.L. Mayden, V.B. Salnikov & V.J. Birstein - 2000. Examination of intraspecific variation and life history characteristics of Pseudoscaphirhynchus kaufmanni and P. hermanni (Actinopterygii, Acipenseridae), central Asian sturgeon endemic to the Amu Darya River. In: Program book and abstracts. Joint (80th) meeting of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpatologists (ASIH), American Elasmobranch Society (AES), Herpatologists League (HL), Neotropical Ichthyological Assoc. (NIA), SSAR, CAH. . 223- 224.. Mayden, R.L. & B.J.Kuhajda - 1996. Systematics, Taxonomy, and conservation status of the endangered Alabama sturgeon, Scaphirhynchus suttkusi William and Clemmer (Actinopterygii, Acipenseridae). Copeia . 1996 (2): 241-273.. Nikolskii, A. M. - 1900. Pseudoscaphirhynchus rossikowi n. gen. and spec. Ann. Mus. Zool. Acad. Imp. Sci. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department St. Petersburg. . 5: 257-260.. In Russian. Salnikov, V. B, V. J. Birstein & R. L. Mayden - 1996. The contemporary status of the two Amu Darya River shovelnose sturgeons, Pseudoscaphirhynchus kaufmanni and P. hermanni. The Sturgeon Quarterly. . 4 (3): 10-14 .. Tleuov, R.T. & N.I. Sagitov - 1973. Acipenserid fishes of the Aral Sea. FAN Press, Tashkent . 155 pp.. In Russian Zholdasova, I. - 1997. Sturgeons and the Aral Sea ecological catastrophe. Environm. Biol. Fish. . 48: 373- 380..
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