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State Animals and Mammals
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Missouri Symbols
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Missouri Animal
(Aquatic Animal)
Paddlefish or Spoonbill
(Polyodon spathula)
Adopted on May 23, 1997.
The paddlefish, Polyodon spathula, became Missouri's official aquatic animal on May 23, 1997. Only three rivers in Missouri support substantial populations of the paddlefish; the Mississippi, Missouri and the Osage. They are also present in some of the state's larger lakes. The paddlefish is primitive, with a cartilage skeleton, rather than bone. They commonly exceed five feet in length and weights of 60 pounds; 20-year olds are common and some live 30 years or more. (RSMo 10.130)
Paddlefish are one of the largest, native freshwater fishes in North America, attaining lengths of more than six feet (1.8 m) and weights of more than 100 pounds (45.5 kg). In South Dakota, a paddlefish weighing more than 140 pounds (63.6 kg) was caught and released by South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks fisheries research biologists. Paddlefish (also called spoonbill) are an ancient creature getting their name from the paddle-shaped rostrum or bill, that is often up to one-third their entire body length. Paddlefish have a large, toothless mouth on the underside of their head and skin without scales, except for a patch near the tail fin.
The tail is deeply forked with the upper lobe longer than the lower. Their skeleton is mostly cartilage, with the most bone-like material found in the head. Adult paddlefish have extremely small eyes in proportion to their body size. Paddlefish
color varies from bluish-gray to almost black on their dorsal surface to white on their ventral side.
Taxonomic Hierarchy
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| Kingdom |
Animalia -- animals |
| Phylum |
Chordata -- chordates, cordado, cordés |
| Subphylum |
Vertebrata -- vertebrado, vertebrates, vertébrés |
| Class |
Actinopterygii -- poisson épineux, poissons à nageoires rayonnées, ray-finned fishes, spiny rayed fishes |
| Order |
Acipenseriformes -- paddlefishes, spoonfishes, sturgeons |
| Family |
Polyodontidae -- paddlefishes |
| Genus |
Polyodon |
| Species |
Polyodon spathula |
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State Animals and Mammals
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Mammals are one group of animals. Bears, monkeys and dolphins are mammals. So are humans.
But what makes a mammal a mammal?
an·i·mal (ān'ə-məl)
n.
1. A multicellular organism of the kingdom Animalia, differing from plants in certain
typical characteristics such as capacity for locomotion, nonphotosynthetic metabolism,
pronounced response to stimuli, restricted growth, and fixed bodily structure.
2. An animal organism other than a human, especially a mammal.
mam·mal (mām'əl)
n.
Any of various warm-blooded vertebrate animals of the class Mammalia, including humans,
characterized by a covering of hair on the skin and, in the female, milk-producing mammary
glands for nourishing the young.
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