Here are two examples of the sturddlefish hybrid of the Russian sturgeon and the American spoonbill.
Atila Mozsar / Genes
The American spoonbill and the Russian sturgeon were never intended to mate. But when scientists accidentally bred a new hybrid of the two, the big shot was born.
Most people know the Russian sturgeon for its eggs, which are sold as high-end caviar. The American spoonbill fish has a long snout and can only be found in half of the US Both species are known as “fossil fishes” due to their ancient lineage and slow evolution.
Unfortunately, both sturgeon and paddlefish are critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Because both species of fish are in danger of disappearing, scientists have an understandable curiosity whether sturgeon and swordfish can be bred in captivity.
Using gynegenesis (an asexual reproduction method that requires the presence of sperm without the contribution of their DNA to complete), the researchers accidentally used spatula fish sperm to fertilize sturgeon eggs. Surprisingly, hybridization worked.
The hybridized fish hatched from the eggs, and the researchers separated them into two groups. Some of the sturddlefish that had twice the maternal DNA looked more like sturgeon than paddlefish. The second group, which had the same amount of maternal and paternal DNA, looked like an equal mix of the two species.
Scientist Attila Mozsár from the Hungarian Fisheries and Aquaculture Research Institute, in addition to the other scientists responsible for the new fish hybrid, revealed her findings in a study published in the scientific journal Genes this month.
The study marked the first successful hybridization between these two species: the Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) and the American spoonbill fish (Polyodon spathula), and between members of the Acipenseridae and Polyodontidae families.
“We never wanted to play with hybridization,” Mozsár told The New York Times. “It was absolutely involuntary.”
While the big shot offers a fascinating look at the hybridization of two species that were not necessarily intended to mate, don’t expect an influx of big shot to invade the waters any time soon.
Most man-made hybrids, like these sturddlefish, are sterile and cannot reproduce in the wild. Therefore, for now, these sturddlefish are a mere scientific rarity.
