White sturgeon
Amazing fact
The white sturgeon has rows of plates instead of scales.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The white sturgeon has rows of plates instead of scales.
THE REAL WORLD
The real White sturgeon
- Scientific name
- Acipenser transmontanus
- Japanese name
- シロチョウザメ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Acipenseriformes
- Family
- Acipenseridae
- Genus
- Acipenser
Where the name “White sturgeon” comes from
Its scientific name combines terms meaning sturgeon and beyond the mountains.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebIt lives on the Pacific side of North America. It spends most of its life in the sea near the shore and swims far up large rivers to lay its eggs.
It has no teeth. It feeds on the bottom, finding food with its barbels and sucking it up with its mouth.
How the White sturgeon lives
When small, it eats shellfish, crayfish, and fish eggs. As it grows larger, it eats fish such as salmon. If it cannot reach the sea, it may spend much of its life in fresh water.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- Body length: up to 3.6 m鳥羽水族館
- Weight
- up to 630 kgUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Range
- Pacific slope of North America from the Aleutian Islands to Baja CaliforniaUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
Where the White sturgeon has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- シロチョウザメ
- 简体中文
- 美国白鲟
- 繁體中文
- 美國白鱘
- Español
- Esturión blanco
- Français
- Esturgeon blanc
- Deutsch
- Weißer Stör
- Português (Brasil)
- Esturjão-branco
- Italiano
- Storione bianco
- العربية
- حفش أبيض
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Sinosturio transmontanus
- Tiếng Việt
- Cá tầm trắng
- Русский
- Белый осётр
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — シロチョウザメChecked: 2026-11-04
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Acipenser transmontanusChecked: 2026-11-04
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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