Largest freshwater fish
Som In the 19th century. V Russia a common one was caught catfish (Silurus glanis) length 4.6 m and weight 336 kg. Nowadays, any freshwater fish whose length exceeds 1.83 m and weighs 90 kg is already considered large.
Smallest freshwater fish
Pandaka The smallest and lightest freshwater fish is the dwarf pandaka (Pandaka pygmaea). This colorless and almost transparent fish lives in lakes about. Luzon, Philippines. The body length of males is 7.5-9.9 mm, and the weight is only 4-5 mg.
Smallest game fish
Sinarapan (Mistichthys luzonensis), a species of goby that is endangered and lives only in Lake Buhi. Luzon, Philippines. Males are only 10-13mm in length and it takes 70,000 fish to produce a dried fish block weighing 454g.
Oldest fish
Eel In 1948 from an aquarium Helsingborg Museum, Sweden, reported the death of a female European eel (Anguilla anguilla) named Patty, who was 88 years old. She is believed to have been born in 1860 in the Sargasso Sea, North Atlantic, and was caught somewhere in the river when she was 3 years old.
The oldest goldfish
Goldfish There have been numerous reports from China of goldfish - goldfish (Carassius auratus) living for more than 50 years, but only a few of these reports can be considered reliable.
The most valuable fish
Beluga The most expensive fish is the Russian beluga (Huso huso). A female weighing 1,227 kg, caught in the Tikhaya Sosna River in 1324, produced 245 kg of the highest quality caviar, which would cost $200,000 today.
Carp Far Eastern carp (C. Carpio) 76 cm long, champion of the most prestigious nationwide Japanese koi shows (koi is the Japanese name for carp) in 1976, 1977, 1979 and 1980, was sold in 1982 for 17 million yen. In March 1986 this ornamental carp was purchased by Derry Evans, owner of the Kent Koi Centre, near Sevenoaks, c. Kent, UK, price not announced; After 5 months, the fish, which was 15 years old, died. She was made into a stuffed animal.
A fish that can climb a tree
Pineapple Pineapple, or creeper fish, native to South Asia, is the only fish that comes onto land and even climbs trees. She walks the earth in search of a more suitable habitat. Pineapple gills are adapted to absorb oxygen from moist atmospheric air.
The smallest toad
Black-breasted toad The smallest toad - black-breasted toad (Bufo taitanus beiranus), living in Africa. The largest specimen was 24 mm in length.
The smallest frog
Cuban dwarf The smallest frog and at the same time the smallest amphibian - Cuban dwarf (Sminthyllus limbatus), living in Cuba; The length of a fully developed individual from the tip of the muzzle to the anus is 0.85 - 1.2 cm.
The biggest toad
Yeah, the largest known toad - yeah (Bufo marinus), living in the tropical zone of South America and Australia. The weight of an average-sized specimen is 450 g. In 1991, according to measurements, the weight of a male of this species, named Prince, owned by Haken Forsberg from Akers Stickebroek, Sweden, was 2.65 kg, and the length from the tip of the muzzle to the anus was extended - 53.9 cm.
The largest frog
Goliath frog Goliath frog (Conraua goliath), caught in April 1989 by a resident of Seattle, PC. Washington, USA, by Andy Coffman in the Sanaga River, Cameroon, weighed 3.66 kg.
Coelacanth, or coelacanth, is the only representative of lobe-finned fish. It was thought to have gone extinct about 70 million years ago. Zoologists first learned about its existence in 1938. Since then, coelacanth has become synonymous with “living fossils.”
But scientists foresaw this. Although, by and large, they had almost no hope. But, as often happens in the world of science, the search that lasted for many decades was finally crowned with success. Incredible, but true: 60 years after the first discovery off the coast of South Africa, a living relic - a real prehistoric fish that lived in the sea 300 million years ago - was caught in the net of Indonesian fishermen from the island of Sulawesi. It was a coelacanth. The discovery so excited the scientific community and the public that the popular English magazine Nature immediately recognized it as the most outstanding event of the year.
Chance, as always, helped bring him closer.
In 1997, a young married couple appeared in Sulawesi, also united by professional interests. American ichthyologist Mark Erdman and his Indonesian wife, also a marine biologist, decided to spend their honeymoon in the exotic surroundings of the northern part of Sulawesi, which differs from the southern part of this island, perhaps, only in that it lies just above the equator, therefore, in a different hemisphere. While walking one day through the market of the seaside town of Manado, which was full of outlandish variety, the Erdman couple purely by chance noticed an unusual large fish - an exhibition specimen, so to speak, which, accordingly, could not be bought. But it was possible to take a photo. Which the couple did successfully.
However, Mark Erdman, as a specialist, only had to take one look at the curiosity to understand that this was a rare specimen of the legendary coelacanth.
What was surprising was how the coelacanth got to Indonesia. Previously, it was believed that the range of the coelacanth extends no further than the Comoros Islands, which lie in the northern part of the Mozambique Channel - between the northern tip of Madagascar and the eastern coast of Africa. And from Comoros to Sulawesi is a good 10,000 km. Which Mark Erdman knew very well. And then he decided to engage in a private investigation with his wife, fearing for the time being to make his discovery public. Erdman could be completely understood: he wanted to collect more facts.
And the first such fact turned out to be that the coelacanth, which Sulawesi fishermen have long dubbed “raja-laut”, which means “king of the sea”, is not such a rarity in these waters - no, no, and even gets caught in fishing nets. And the fact that it has not yet caught the eye of scientists, who is to blame for this? At least not fishermen.
Be that as it may, a year later - on June 30, 1998 - another specimen of the coelacanth landed in the net of fishermen from Manado, which they set for sharks. One problem: in the cage where he was placed, he lived only for three hours, leaving behind only a memory - in the form of a photograph and description taken by Erdman, a stuffed animal and unanswered questions that added to the treasury of zoological secrets. As it happened more than once - both in 1938 and in 1952.
And then this happened. The first living coelacanth was caught at the mouth of the South African Halumna River. Or - the last representative of the lobe-finned fish, a superorder of bony fishes that appeared in the Middle Devonian period and - what is remarkable! - gave rise to terrestrial vertebrates. However, coelacanths were thought to have gone extinct 70 million years ago. But it was not there!..
The caught individual reached more than one and a half meters in length and weighed about 60 kg. With the light hand of Professor J.L.-B. Smith, who studied the rare find inside and out, it received its scientific name: Latimeria chalumnae - in honor of the place where it was discovered. The individual had eight fins, and four of them closely resembled the legs of an amphibian in its earliest stages of development. Smith and other researchers were no less surprised by the respiratory apparatus of the fish, or rather, one of its components - an organ similar to primitive, just forming lungs. Thus, obvious confirmation was obtained of the most important position of evolutionary theory, which states that life came to earth from the sea. And that the so-called lung fish were the ancestors of terrestrial vertebrates.
In addition, scientists realized that the coelacanth, caught off the east coast of South Africa, ended up in those waters, in general, by accident. The relict individual, they suggested, was most likely brought there by the Mozambique Current from the north.
The guess was confirmed sixteen years later. In 1952, another living specimen of the coelacanth was caught in the waters of Anjouan Island, part of the Comoros archipelago. Then it turned out that the Comorians have been fishing for this fish since ancient times and call it “gombessa”. And for them it is not at all a curiosity.
Thus, the range of the prehistoric lobe-finned fish resurrected from oblivion was established - the western part of the Indian Ocean, the northern entrance to the Mozambique Strait. However, these boundaries, as we already know, turned out to be conditional. Twelve years later, scientists have received factual evidence that the Comorian "Gombessa" was once seen in another ocean, off the coast of a completely different continent.
In 1964, the Belgian naturalist Maurice Steiner bought from a Spanish antiquarian a 17th-century silver medallion depicting a coelacanth, which was reproduced with amazing accuracy. But the most curious thing is that the medallion was not made in the Comoros Islands or even in Europe. Oddly enough, thousands of miles from the African and European shores - in Mexico. And this fact was confirmed for certain - through chemical analysis of silver and the establishment of a very characteristic Spanish-American method of minting and decorating jewelry, which was made precisely in the 17th century, and not just anywhere, but in the New World.
The reality of the Mexican coelacanth was confirmed in 1993. French biologist Roman E in the town of Beloxi (Mississippi), just on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, acquired three large dried scales, reminiscent of medium-sized flat shells. They seemed to have been extracted from the scaly integument of one of the coelacanths described in detail by Smith in 1938 and 1952.
And then there is the “raja-laut”, very similar to the individuals classified by Smith. The only thing that distinguished the “sea king” from the island of Sulawesi from his Comorian relative was the color. The Sulawesi coelacanth had a distinct brown color with yellowish spots, and not the steel-blue color of the Comorian.
And finally, according to another French cryptozoologist, Michel Raynal, the range of the “raja laut” extends much further than the Sulawesi Sea. In any case, Raynal heard more than once from Philippine fishermen about a mysterious fish, described as very similar to a coelacanth. And this is the Pacific Ocean!
Do you know which animals have survived on our planet since ancient times? These mysterious creatures not only survived various cataclysms, but to this day continue to successfully prolong their lineage. and here is the first of them...
10. Hagfish
Judging by the fossilized remains, Hagfish existed more than three hundred million years ago, which automatically means that they inhabited our planet even before the first dinosaur set foot on it.
These animals are found in deep waters and are sometimes also called eels, which is fundamentally incorrect, since they have nothing to do with eels.
And that's not the whole point: the whole point is that Hagfish isn't even a fish. There are many interesting facts associated with this creature: for example, having a skull, the Hagfish does not have a spinal cord, but does have a second brain. The open circulatory system has a main heart and three additional ones. They have virtually no vision, since their eyes are covered with skin, and they feed at night. However, they cannot be called completely blind - there are light-sensitive cells around the Hagfish cloaca. Hagfish is a pronounced predator, feeding on weakened animals falling to the seabed, into whose bodies it bites, eating out the entrails and muscles, using its powerful tongue with horny teeth. Sometimes they feed on worms.
Hagfish are a family of about 15 species. Fish are distributed in temperate and subtropical waters of the World Ocean.
Due to the fact that Hagfish is covered with a huge amount of unique type of mucus, no fish living in the same Hagfish biotope is able to harm, especially in light of Hagfish’s ability to tie itself in a knot. In other words, whether other marine inhabitants like it or not, Hagfish have no natural enemies on the seabed. It lives in tropical and temperate waters of the world's oceans. Hagfish is part of the jawless family and is considered a living fossil. For the entire subphylum of vertebrates, this strange animal is considered basal. Hagfish has a fairly large body length - up to seventy centimeters. It is distinguished by its survivability and can live for a long time without water, go hungry and remain alive even despite receiving serious injuries.
9. Lancetfish
The origin of this natural wonder is clearly prehistoric. Its more official name is Big-Headed Alepisaurus. It looks like a fierce predator armed with sharp teeth and equipped with a sail on its back that surprisingly resembles the back of a dinosaur. However, this is only an apparent similarity. In fact, this “sail” is just an enlarged dorsal fin. Despite this, even the scientific name is similar to the names of giant lizards (Akepisaurus ferox).
The literal translation of the name Lancetfish means large-scale lizard. This animal reaches two meters in length and sometimes even more, and the alepisaurus weighs up to nine kilograms. It has been seen in tropical and subtropical waters in all oceans.
During migrations, adult individuals can reach temperate and even subarctic waters, swimming even to the areas of Greenland, Iceland, Kamchatka and the Bering and Okhotsk Seas. It can live at a depth of up to two kilometers. Unfortunately, alepisaurs have not been studied enough, but it is known that individuals that have not reached sexual maturity are hermaphrodites. Regarding adult individuals, there is currently no reliable information about their functional hermaphroditism.
8. Arowana
Arowana belongs to the prehistoric marine life Osteoglossids. This type of sea creature lived back in the Jurassic period. Currently, fish of this species have been found in Australia, Asia, Africa and the Amazon. Recently, Arowana has been captured and preserved as an aquarium species. This fish is an extremely greedy and voracious predator that devours any small animals, which even include bats and birds, which Arowana manages to catch right in flight. This ability is explained by the fact that Arowana can jump out of the water to a height of about two meters. In China, this fish is called the “dragon fish” because of its external resemblance to this character from Chinese mythology. In China they believe that good luck awaits the person who encounters this fish.
7. Frilled Shark
This sea predator is one of the most ancient primitive sharks that have survived to this day. This species appeared back in the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs ruled on land and beyond. These sharks were discovered quite recently. The length of their bodies reaches two meters. Sexual dimorphism is pronounced and the length of females is greater than the length of males. Frilled Shark lives at great depths and its diet is based on squid. These sharks do not pose any danger to humans and the majority of Frilled Sharks, fortunately, never see a person in their entire lives. Accordingly, these sharks are seen extremely rarely. In most cases, encounters with these fish are limited to scientists or fishermen noticing and recording dying or dead individuals that float to the surface of the ocean.
6. Sturgeon
Another prehistoric species that has survived to this day is the sturgeon. Sturgeon existed already in the Jurassic period (85-70 million years ago) and are known to the general public for being one of the main sources of black caviar. They are of great interest to science because they represent the subfamily of shovel-nosed animals (Scaphirhynchinae).
Representatives of this species are found, on the one hand, in the territory of Central Asia, and on the other, in North American territories, which gives reason to see in the living sturgeons the remains of aquatic fauna that was very widespread in the past. Currently, the sturgeon is under threat of complete extinction and is listed as such in the Red Book. The largest representatives of sturgeon can reach a length of six meters in length.
The weight of individual individuals reached one and a half tons. There have been reports of individuals weighing two tons. Despite the fact that their size is approximately the same as that of most white sharks, sturgeons feed on small animals that live on the seabed and do not pose any danger to people. A characteristic feature of the sturgeon are its spiked scales located in rows along the sides and back, which makes this fish look like a knight. The similarity is enhanced by an elongated conical snout, reminiscent of a spear lowered to attack.
5. Arapaima
It is a close relative of the Arowana mentioned above. As many scientists suggest, the Amazonian Arapaima is the largest freshwater fish on our planet. If you believe the descriptions, the length of this fish can reach four and a half meters, but it is very difficult to verify this statement, since it is currently extremely difficult to find an adult Arapaima. Today, the average length of this fish is two meters.
Arapaima leads a predatory lifestyle, feeding mainly on crustaceans and small fish, although on occasion they can eat anything that can fit in their mouth. Arapaima moves quite slowly and has such an interesting ability as the ability to exhale oxygen, just as animals from the cetacean family do. Arapaima does not pose any danger to humans, however, despite this, this unique species, like many others, is on the verge of extinction. These fish appeared in the Miocene period, but the subspecies it belongs to (Osteoglossidae) appeared on Earth much earlier.
4. Sawfish
The first representatives of this species appeared on Earth back in the Miocene period. Surprisingly, the sawfish has managed to survive to this day and can be found in rivers or at the bottom of the sea. Externally, the sawfish looks like a shark and reaches seven meters in length. The main weapon used by this predatory fish is a sensory organ covered with sensitive pores, thanks to which the sawfish is able to successfully hunt, despite the fact that its eyesight is very poor. In most cases, sawfish are completely safe for humans and do not show any interest in them, but if aggression is shown on their part and they feel threatened, they may attack.
Judging by the fossils found, giant prehistoric sawfish formed the basis of the diet of the largest predatory dinosaur of all time, Spinosaurus. This assumption is made based on the fact that a tooth belonging to this huge dinosaur was discovered in the vertebra of a giant sawfish.
3. Alligator Gar
This huge, scaly carnivore has been found in the southern United States and in eastern and northern Mexico. Despite its name and appearance, the Alligator Gar is a fish that lives in fresh waters, although in some cases it can swim into sea waters. Alligator Gar can reach four meters in length and weigh up to two hundred kilograms.
This fish got its name due to its long jaws equipped with two rows of teeth, and its appearance very similar to that of a reptile. The Alligator Gar is an extremely bloodthirsty predator that prefers to ambush its prey when hunting. According to unconfirmed sources, Alligator Gar can attack humans, although no fatal attacks by this fish have been recorded to date. It must be said that Alligator Gar is one of the most ancient species of fish that live on our planet. The origins of Alligator Gar can be traced back to the Cretaceous period and may go back even further.
2. Polypterus Senegalus
When talking about this fish living on the African continent, it is often mistakenly called a dinosaur. The reason for this confusion is the appearance worthy of a large reptile and the dorsal jagged fin, which only enhances the resemblance to the terrible giant lizards. Currently, Polypterus Senegalus is being caught for subsequent sale to aquarists, among whom keeping these exotic fish in an aquarium has become a fairly popular hobby.
Fortunately, this does not yet pose any threat to their population, since Polypterus senegalus is a fairly agile fish that is not easy to catch. Polypterus Senegalus is a fairly tenacious fish. For example, they are able to live without water for quite long periods of time and the only thing they need for this is for their skin to remain moist. When the skin dries out, the fish dies.
1.Coelacanth
Coelacanth is a real star of the scientific world today. This is not at all surprising, since it has every right to be considered the most famous species of fish that has inhabited our planet since the prehistoric period and, accordingly, has the right to first place in this list, since for a very long period of time it was believed that representatives of this genus have long been extinct, leaving the waters of our planet. However, in 1938, the coelacanth was rediscovered.
It was previously believed that coelacanths went extinct in the Cretaceous period along with dinosaurs, but the discovery of a living specimen of this marine inhabitant in South Africa in 1938 turned paleontologists' ideas upside down. Since then, a fairly large number of coelacanths have been discovered both in the western Indian Ocean, centered near the Comoros Islands, and near Indonesia, where the eastern population of a different species of coelacanth lives.
The coelacanth's usual habitat is dark, deep waters, which has allowed them to remain undetected for a long time. Fortunately, the meat of this fish has a terrible taste and smell and is therefore not used as food anywhere. However, despite this, the coelacanth population is under threat of extinction, since these already few fish are caught for the purpose of selling to collectors and because of the supposed healing properties of the coelacanth.
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Earth is an amazing planet. There is a countless variety of life forms on it, both relatively recent and very ancient. Here is a list of the oldest living things on Earth that will definitely make you feel young.
10. Martialis heureka
Age: 100-120 million years
This rare Amazonian animal has been dubbed the "ant from Mars" because it looks and behaves completely differently than any other species of ant. This is one of the oldest animals on Earth, according to various estimates, it appeared from 100 to 120 million years ago.
Martialis heureka live in the soil and do not have eyes, but nature has endowed them with numerous hair-like projections on the body. They help these strange ants sense vibrations and pressure changes in the surrounding soil.
9. Frilled Shark
Age: 150 million years
One of the oldest living members of the shark family. In 2007, a frilled shark was caught near Tokyo, which is very strange, because usually these predators live at a depth of 600-1000 meters. Scientists assumed that the female was sick, which is why she rose to the surface. The caught shark, despite careful care, lived only 2 days.
Special chemical and physiological adaptations allow the frilled shark, which is more like a snake or an eel, to survive at depths where not only humans, but also many marine inhabitants have no access.
8. Shchitni
Age: 200 million years
Perhaps one of the distant great-great-great (and many, many more “great-great”) great-grandfathers of these freshwater crustaceans saw a living dinosaur with his own eyes. Or the only continent at that time - Pangea.
The scutum is a very small animal, 2 to 4 millimeters long, that can survive even in the harshest geological conditions. Shield eggs can lie dormant for several years until conditions are right for hatching. And even the cannibalism inherent in shield insects could not destroy this species.
7. Sturgeon
Age: 200 million years
These largest freshwater fish are found in North America and Eurasia and are one of the oldest species of animals belonging to the class of bony fishes.
However, due to the production of expensive black caviar, which has an exquisite taste, sturgeon fish are under threat of destruction. Over 15 years, the number of sturgeon fish in the Caspian Sea alone has decreased by 38.5 times
6. Coelacanth
Age - 360-400 million years
This ancient fish is one of the rarest and most endangered fish in the world. For a very long time the coelacanth was thought to be an extinct species, but in recent years these fish have been discovered in the Indian Ocean.
Giant coelacanths grow up to 190 cm in length and live at a depth of about 100 meters. They have electrosensory organs that help detect the presence of prey, and the structure of the lobed fins is unique and not found in any other modern fish.
5. Horseshoe crab
Age - 230-450 million years
This strange crab, looking more like a facehugger from Aliens when turned upside down, was a contemporary of the most ancient dinosaurs. Despite its name, the horseshoe crab (aka horseshoe crab) is not a crab, but an arachnid. Its closest relatives were trilobites.
The body of the horseshoe crab reaches 60 cm in length and consists of two sections: the cephalothorax and abdomen. Both parts of the back are protected by a powerful shell, greenish-gray in color. Excellent camouflage against the background of silt. And on the tail needle there are spiny protrusions that help the horseshoe crab balance in the water during strong currents. The tail is also needed to “plow” the seabed in search of food and as a lever if the horseshoe crab suddenly capsizes. Alas, it does not always work.
This amazing creature swims funny - belly up, using its own shell as a boat.
4. Nautilus
Age - 235-500 million years
One of the last representatives of a very old group of mollusks. According to various estimates, this cephalopod appeared on Earth from 500 to 235 million years ago and is older than many species of dinosaurs. Thus, the nautilus is rightfully called a living fossil.
Its beautiful spiral shell could probably arouse the envy of modern cephalopods, deprived of such a luxurious shelter. Fortunately, this feeling is unfamiliar to them.
About 90 small tentacles, arranged in a circle around the mouth, help the nautilus to catch prey and repel attacks from enemies.
3. Medusa
Age - 505-550 million years
It is the most primitive aquatic animal (after the second most ancient animals on Earth). A jellyfish never has a headache, because it has neither a brain nor a nervous system, but it does have primitive digestive and sensory organs.
90% of a jellyfish's body is made up of water, giving it a clear, jelly-like appearance. But don’t be fooled by its apparent harmlessness. Many types of jellyfish are poisonous. And the most dangerous of them is the box jellyfish. Its venom can kill an adult human and many large animals almost as quickly as. Moreover, the victim dies within 2 to 15 minutes from severe painful shock or cardiac arrest. The box jellyfish is also known as one of the most transparent animals on planet Earth.
2. Sponges
Age - 580 million years
Who lives at the bottom of the ocean? These are sponges - one of the most primitive animals that are similar to plants.
They are nothing more than an aggregation of cells and have no internal organs or body parts. Sponges live in sea and fresh water. Some of the most famous types of sponges are corals. There are about 8 thousand species of sponges in the world. So SpongeBob, the famous cartoon character, has a huge number of living relatives with a very ancient pedigree.
1. Cyanobacteria
Age: 3.5 billion years
You've never seen this tiny bacterium, but it's one of the top 10 living organisms that have existed the longest on Earth. And it is precisely this that is one of the reasons why life on our planet became possible. Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, are probably the first living organism to appear on Earth. It is a photosynthetic microorganism that lives in large colonies and produces oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis. Thanks to their activities, according to scientists, the “oxygen catastrophe” began - a change in the composition of the earth’s atmosphere. This process began about 2.4 billion years ago and caused the restructuring of the biosphere and the global Huronian glaciation.
Today, cyanobacteria are one of the main sources of oxygen in the world. And thus support the existence of all other oxygen-breathing life forms.
The world's oldest animals that are still extant when most of their counterparts are long extinct are called living fossils. Studying these animals gives scientists more information about the evolution and successful survival strategies used in the animal kingdom.
Here is a list (with photos) of ten prehistoric fish that were considered extinct. Feel free to mention in the comments those we excluded.
Hagfish
According to records, hagfish have been around for over 300 million years. These vertebrate predators feed mainly on fish, sometimes worms, live in relatively deep waters and reach a length of 45–70 cm. Hagfish are very tenacious, can go without water for a very long time, starve for a long time and remain alive for a long time with extremely severe wounds. A case is described when a fish, being decapitated, continued to swim for another 5 hours.
Alepisaurus
In ninth place in the ranking of prehistoric fish, which were considered extinct, is “Alepisaurus”. Agree, it looks very much like a fish that lived during the time of dinosaurs. Very little is known about their habitats, although they are widespread in all oceans except the polar seas. Alepisaurus can reach a length of up to 2 meters. It is considered very voracious - it feeds on small fish and squid.
Aravanidae are a family of tropical freshwater fish found in the Amazon basin, and parts of Africa, Asia and Australia. They are voracious predators that feed on any small animals they can catch, including birds and bats (they can jump up to 2 meters). Often shown in public aquariums and zoos.
The frilled shark looks more like a strange sea snake or eel than a shark. This rare predatory fish lives in the deep waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, where it feeds mainly on squid and fish. They can reach a length of up to 2 meters (females are larger than males). The frilled shark is not dangerous to humans - most of these sharks spend their entire lives without seeing humans.
The largest species of sturgeon can grow up to 6 meters long (like the largest white shark) and weigh up to 816 kg. They mostly stay close to the bottom, where they feed on small animals. It poses no danger to humans.
Arapaima
Arapaima is a tropical freshwater fish, considered one of the largest freshwater fish in the world - the length is usually up to 2 m, but some individuals reach 3 meters, and the weight of the largest arapaima caught was 200 kilograms. It lives in densely vegetated waters in South America in the Amazon River basin in Brazil, Guyana and Peru, where it feeds mainly on fish, as well as other small animals, including birds. An interesting feature of this fish is that it must come to the surface every 5-20 minutes in order to breathe air (like cetaceans). Considered one of the most dangerous creatures of the Amazon.
Saw-nosed rays
Sawtooth rays are endangered and are found in the tropical regions of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, always close to the shore, sometimes swimming into the beds of large rivers. Sawnose rays are very similar in appearance to sawnose sharks, but compared to sharks, rays are much larger and reach up to 7.6 meters in length. Mostly peaceful, but if provoked, the stingray can become extremely aggressive and dangerous.
Mississippi girt
The Mississippi shellfish is a species of large predatory fish common in North and Central America. It is one of the largest freshwater fish (although sometimes it wanders into the sea): it reaches a length of 3–5 meters and weighs up to 150 kg. This is a voracious predator that can bite a young alligator in half with its jaws. To date, there are no confirmed, registered cases of human death from attacks by these fish.
In second place in the list of prehistoric fish considered extinct is the “Senegalese polyfin” - a freshwater predatory fish common in Africa, which is relatively small - 50 cm long. It has very poor eyesight. Polypterus hunts by smell and attacks all the fish it can swallow. This fish is also often kept in aquariums.
Coelacanth
Coelacanth is the most famous of all "living fossils" and deserves to be first on this list. These predators grow up to 2 meters and feed on small fish, including small sharks. They live in deep, dark waters off the eastern and southern coasts of Africa and Indonesia. For 400 million years, coelacanths have remained virtually unchanged. They are endangered.
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