Revised 4 Dec. 2024
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Acipenser Linnaeus 1758 Latin for sturgeon, with at least three published explanations of its derivation: (1) derived from the Greek akkipesios (ἀκκιπήσιος) and perhaps equivalent to the Egyptian xipen-pennu; (2) combination of the Greek akís (ἀκίς), point, and pénte (πέντε), five, presumably referring to five rows of sharp scutes on body; (3) from the Latin acus, needle, and pensum, weight (a quantity of wool given to handmaids to be woven or spun daily), i.e., a fish that “possesses a weight of needles,” referring to the “needle-shaped barbels” that hang down from its mouth

Acipenser baerii Brandt 1869 patronym not identified but probably in honor of Karl Ernst von Baer (1792–1876), Baltic-German scientist and explorer, considered the father of embryology

Acipenser baerii baicalensis Nikolskii 1896 -ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Lake Baikal, Siberia, type locality

Acipenser baerii stenorhynchus Nikolskii 1896 narrow-snouted, from sténos (Gr. στένος), narrow, and rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to pointed snout compared with blunt snout of A. b. baerii

Acipenser brevirostrum Lesueur 1818 brevis (L.), short; rostrum (L.), snout, referring to shorter snout compared with A. oxyrinchus

Acipenser colchicus Marti 1940 -icus (L.), belonging to: Colchis, ancient name for eastern coast of Black Sea in Eurasian Georgia, type locality

Acipenser dabryanus Duméril 1869 -anus (L.), belonging to: Claude-Philibert Dabry de Thiersant (1826–1898), fish culturist, French counsel to China, and student of Chinese fishes, who collected holotype

Acipenser desotoi Vladykov 1955 in honor of Hernando (misspelled Fernando) de Soto (ca. 1496–1542), Spanish conquistador who explored the Gulf of Mexico (where this sturgeon occurs) and was first European to see the Mississippi River

Acipenser fulvescens Rafinesque 1817 Latin for yellowish or tawny, referring to its “dark fulvus color”

Acipenser gueldenstaedtii Brandt & Ratzeburg 1833 in honor of Johann Anton Güldenstädt (1745–1781), Baltic German naturalist and explorer, who identified this sturgeon in 1772 but used a non-Linnaean name (Sturio)

Acipenser medirostris Ayres 1854 media (L.), moderate or middle; rostris, Neo-Latin scientific adjective of rostrum (L.), snout, referring to snout length compared with specimens of A. transmontanus that Ayres examined, all from San Francisco Bay, California, USA

Acipenser mikadoi Hilgendorf 1892 patronym not identified, possibly in honor of the “mikado” or emperor of Japan, then Emporer Meiji, who reigned from 1867 to 1912 (Hilgendorf lectured at Tokyo College of Medicine from 1873–1876 and described this sturgeon from one he saw at a fish market)

Acipenser naccarii Bonaparte 1836 in honor of Italian botanist Fortunato Luigi Naccari (1793–1860)

Acipenser nudiventris Lovetsky 1828 nudus (L.), bare or naked; ventris, genitive of venter (L.), belly, referring to seeming absence of ventral scutes, which are totally absorbed in large adults

Acipenser oxyrinchus Mitchell 1815 sharp-snouted, from oxýs (Gr. ὀξύς), sharp or pointed, and rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to its sharply V-shaped snout

Acipenser persicus Borodin 1897 -ica (L.), belonging to: Persia, i.e., Persian, referring to Caspian Sea, Iran, type locality

Acipenser ruthenus Linnaeus 1758 -us (L.), adjectival suffix: from Ruthenia, historic name for Central and Eastern Europe, probably referring to its distribution

Acipenser ruthenus marsiglii Brandt 1833 in honor of Italian solider and naturalist Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli (1658–1730), who identified this sturgeon in 1726 but used a pre-Linnaean name (Antaceus glaber)

Acipenser schrenckii Brandt 1869 patronym not identified but almost certainly in honor of Leopold von Schrenck (1826-1894), Baltic German zoologist, geographer and ethnographer

Acipenser sinensis Gray 1835 -ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Sinica (China), referring to its occurrence in the Yangtze and Pearl River basins

Acipenser stellatus Pallas 1771 Latin for studded with stars, referring to stellated marks and tubercles on head

Acipenser sturio Linnaeus 1758 Medieval Latin for sturgeon

Acipenser transmontanus Richardson 1836 trans (L.), over or beyond; montanus (L.), pertaining to mountains, referring to its occurrence on the western side of North America’s Continental Divide, the first sturgeon described from the Eastern Pacific

Huso Brandt & Ratzeburg 1833 Medieval Latin and Old High German word for sturgeon (tautonymous with Acipenser huso Linnaeus 1758)

Huso dauricus (Georgi 1775) –icus (L.), belonging to: Daourie, Russian name for area of central Asia southeast of Lake Baikal to about 120˚E, roughly the range of this sturgeon in the Amur River basin of Russia and China

Huso huso (Linnaeus 1758) Medieval Latin and Old High German word for sturgeon

Pseudoscaphirhynchus Nikolskii 1900 pseudo-, from pseúdēs (Gr. ψεύδης), false, although this genus may superficially resemble Scaphirhynchus, with all three species having previously been assigned to it, such an appearance is false

Pseudoscaphirhynchus fedtschenkoi (Kessler 1872) in honor of Russian naturalist and explorer Alexei Pavlovich Fedtschenko (1844–1873), who collected holotype

Pseudoscaphirhynchus hermanni (Kessler 1877) in honor of Hermann (forename not given), a ship officer (presumably on the Aralo-Caspian Expedition), who delivered sturgeon to zoologist and explorer Nikolai Severtsov (1827–1885), who coined the name in a presumably unpublished paper

Pseudoscaphirhynchus kaufmanni (Kessler 1877) in honor of “Lord” Kaufman for the “professional help” (translation) he gave zoologist Modest Nikolaevich Bogdanov, who named this sturgeon in 1874 but did not provide distinguishing features; “Lord” Kaufman is almost certainly Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufmann (1818–1882, also spelled Kaufman), first Governor-General of Turkestan, who commissioned the scientific exploration of the land after it became part of the Russian Empire in the 1860s

Scaphirhynchus Heckel 1836 skaphís (Gr. σκαφίς), shovel; rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to flat, shovel-shaped snout of S. rafinesquii (=platorynchus)

Scaphirhynchus albus (Forbes & Richardson 1905) Latin for white, referring to its pallid coloration

Scaphirhynchus platorynchus (Rafinesque 1820) flat-snouted, from platýs (Gr. πλατύς), flat, and rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to head (including snout) “flattened somewhat like a spade”

Scaphirhynchus suttkusi Williams & Clemmer 1991 in honor of Royal D. Suttkus (1929–2009), Tulane University (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA), for his “longstanding dedication” to ichthyology.