Starry sturgeon

The star sturgeon is a sleek, ancient fish with bony plates and a long snout. It once swam in the Black, Azov, and Caspian Seas, but overfishing has pushed it to the brink of vanishing from the wild.

• Its body is lined with star-shaped bony plates called scutes.
• This sturgeon has been fished so heavily it may soon disappear from its native waters.
• Unlike most fish, sturgeons have skeletons made mostly of cartilage, like sharks.