Goodbye River Monsters

Contrary to popular belief, rivers also contain creatures capable of rivaling those that live in oceans in terms of size.

• The Yangtze sturgeon, considered a living fossil, is now available only on breeding farms.

• The Chinese paddlefish, which was one of the largest freshwater fishes on the planet, is, however, extinct.

Many of Earth’s greatest creatures became extinct once humans came along and began using them as a “resource.” Unfortunately, it happens more than we realize. Current estimates place biodiversity loss at around 150 unique species a day, a truly shocking number. Sadly, that trend continues, and two recent examples show it a little too well. Let’s discover the two river monsters that scientists have officially declared extinct.
A “river monster” isn’t really what it sounds like at first. The expression was popularized by the show that shares the name, but it simply means a massive freshwater fish that lives in a river. We generally consider the ocean the home of large fish, but lurking beneath the rapids of some rivers are creatures that rival some of the larger fish in the oceans.
Goodbye River Monsters: Scientists Declare Two of World's Larger Freshwater Fish Extinct