Bowfin

Uncommon card · No. 145686

The ruddy bowfin (Amia calva) is a ray-finned fish native to North America. Common names include mudfish, mud pike, dogfish, grindle, grinnel, swamp trout, and choupique. It is regarded as a relict, being one of only two surviving species of the Halecomorphi, a group of fish that first appeared during the Early Triassic, around 250 million years ago. The bowfin is often considered a "living fossil" because it has retained some morphological characteristics of its early ancestors. It is one of two species in the genus Amia, along with Amia ocellicauda, the eyespot bowfin. The closest living relatives of bowfins are gars, with the two groups being united in the clade Holostei. Bowfins are demersal, freshwater piscivores, commonly found throughout much of the Eastern United States, and southern Ontario and Quebec. Fossil deposits indicate the Amiiformes were once widespread in both freshwater and marine environments across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Now, their range...

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