Last updated on February 10th, 2024 at 06:41 am
This washed ashore in South Carolina’s Lolly Beach in 2005. What creature was it from? The creature’s body had these fascinating huge scales as if from a sea serpent or dragon.
I have a special love of sea serpents and I was hoping for proof that was uncontested. But it was identified as a giant sturgeon. It is sun-bleached and killed by running into a boat. This one also found washed on a beach in 2019.
But what of its dragon scales? No animal today has scales like that. The answer was true, no creature today, the sturgeon is prehistoric.
The sturgeon is a survivor like the coelacanth-a living relic. Often mistaken for sharks , crocodiles and lake monsters ,they appear in many reports of lake or river cryptids. There are 30 species in all, and they can grow to lengths of 9 to 14 feet. The ocean beluga sturgeon records 20 to 24 feet.
The huge scales called scutes lines its sides and back as protection. The diamonds scales are very distinctive
The sturgeon dates to the Triassic Era with the first dinosaurs. The Devonian Era was earlier with other prehistoric fish such as the Dunkleosteus and Cephalapis. That was a badass time when even the fish were armored.
Protection from other creatures except from humans who have brutally hunted it to near extinction. This creature that has existed since prehistory is now critically endangered.
The sturgeon moves from ocean to fresh water in migrations to spawn like salmon. But sturgeons are a long-lived species that can live for a hundred years and will take up to 18 years to sexually breed. And they are running out of time.
Development of river land. Dams and bridges threaten their migratory routes.
Sport fishers looking for a huge trophy and some species of sturgeon supply the world with caviar.
This sturgeon found dead in Lake Washington, Seattle in November 1987. He measured 11 feet long and estimated to be 80 years old.
They are now given some protection, but it varies from different areas of the world. This fish could once be found along northern coastlines all over the world ,even in freshwater rivers. They are now hard to find. Many states have made it illegal to catch tagged sturgeon. Hatcheries are breeding and raising baby sturgeon to release on their waterways.
This sturgeon is a year old and still considered a baby They are released into a river or lake . After several years they are old enough to migrate out to the ocean .
Many game fishers now follow a catch-photo-release attitude toward their prizes.
This photo has gone viral on several cryptid sites. Viewers are thinking it is a huge gator but the scute scales on his back and sides identify him as a sturgeon. He was seen and photographed in the Frasier River of British Columbia on August 2016.
I had mixed feelings about this one. I was hoping for proof it was a sea dragon. But the more I researched the more interesting it became. The sturgeon is a Living Relic. A huge armored fish from the days of the dinosaurs. That makes him fascinating by his own right.
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https://www.dw.com/en/poaching-dams-imperil-ancient-danube-fish/a-43907515