Big Muddy Speaker Series presents:

In the more than 25 years since its listing as an endangered species, the pallid sturgeon has received ever increasing attention as efforts to conserve and restore the species have been implemented.  Scientists have made significant progress in understanding the life history, behavior and biology of the species. Despite recent progress the species is still not well understood by many and the wide array of elegant adaptions the species has evolved to thrive in the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers are for the most part, under-appreciated.

Pallid sturgeon free embryo at approximately 2 days after hatch, approximately 11-12 mm (about 0.45 of an inch) in length.
Photograph by Kimberly Chojnacki, U.S. Geological Survey)

Pallid sturgeon embryos approximately 8 hours after fertilization. In the wild, the eggs would remain on the river substrate for 5-8 days before hatching. The young then drift downstream with the river current before finding a safe haven habitat.
(Credit: Kimberly Chojnacki, USGS. Public domain.)

We'll be joined by Aaron DeLonay, one of the country's foremost pallid sturgeon experts, who will introduce us to one of North America’s largest and rarest riverine predators from its first formative moments through its transformation to deadly riverine predator. Examine the Missouri River from the pallid sturgeon’s perspective and learn what it takes to survive in the swift current of the Missouri River.  More than 90 million years in the making, this uniquely adapted, charismatic species is imperiled by the very adaptations that have made it successful for so long. We will examine the pallid sturgeon with a new appreciation informed by recent scientific studies and explore some of the emerging hypotheses that may provide answers to why the species is so rare, and where scientists are searching for the keys to species recovery.