White Sturgeon - Physical Appearance

Physical Appearance

The white sturgeon has a slender, long body, head and mouth. This fish has no scales; instead it has large bony scutes that serve as a form of armor. There are 11–14 dorsal scutes, all anterior to the dorsal fin, and 38–48 lateral scutes and 9–12 ventral scutes on each side. The dorsal color of a white sturgeon is gray, pale olive, or gray-brown. The fins are a dusky, opaque gray. The underside is a clean white. It has four barbels, used for sensing food, near its huge toothless mouth.

Sturgeons are classified as a bony fish, but actually are more cartilaginous than bony, their internal bone structure being more like a shark’s. Sturgeon have changed very little since they first appeared, over 175 million years ago and thus have the appearance of a very ancient fish.

Read more about this topic:  White Sturgeon

Famous quotes containing the words physical and/or appearance:

    To survive there, you need the ambition of a Latin-American revolutionary, the ego of a grand opera tenor, and the physical stamina of a cow pony.
    Billie Burke (1885–1970)

    Never before has a generation of parents faced such awesome competition with the mass media for their children’s attention. While parents tout the virtues of premarital virginity, drug-free living, nonviolent resolution of social conflict, or character over physical appearance, their values are daily challenged by television soaps, rock music lyrics, tabloid headlines, and movie scenes extolling the importance of physical appearance and conformity.
    Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)