Scaphirhynchus

a genus of fishes of the family Acipenseridae. The snout is flattened, and the caudal peduncle is elongated and covered with bony plates. There are two species, found in North America in the basin of the Mississippi River. The shovelnose sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platorhychus) reaches a length of 90 cm. It deposits its eggs between April and June in streams with rocky bottoms, and it feeds mainly on insect larvae. The shovelnose sturgeon is commercially valuable. The pallid sturgeon (S. albus), which is the least common of the two species, has no commercial value. It reaches a length of 1 m.