Chinese paddlefish

The Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius) (simplified Chinese: 白鲟; traditional Chinese: 白鱘; pinyin: báixún), also known as Chinese swordfish, is an extinct species of fish that was found in Yangtze and Yellow River basins in China. They had an average length of 3 m (9.8 ft),^[4] making it one of the largest species of primarily freshwater fishes.

Chinese paddlefish
Preserved specimens at Museum of Hydrobiological Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, Wuhan, China
Conservation status
Extinct  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Acipenseriformes
Family:	Polyodontidae
Genus:	†Psephurus Günther, 1873
Species:	†P. gladius
Binomial name
Psephurus gladius (von Martens, 1862)
Synonyms[2][3]
Polyodon gladius von Martens, 1862 Spatularia (Polyodon) angustifolium Kaup, 1862 Polyodon angustifolium (Kaup, 1862)

The Chinese paddlefish was officially declared extinct in July 2022, with an estimated time of extinction to be by 2005–2010, although it had become functionally extinct by 1993.^[5] The main cause of its extinction was the construction of the Gezhouba and Three Gorges dams.^[6]