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Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/American paddlefish

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American paddlefish

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This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 24, 2014 by BencherliteTalk 13:45, 3 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

An American paddlefish in a large aquarium tank

The American paddlefish is the only living species of its kind, and one of the largest freshwater fish in North America. Fossil records of paddlefish date back over 300 million years ago, nearly 50 million years before dinosaurs roamed the earth. The American paddlefish is referred to as a relict species even though it is highly derived with evolutionary adaptations specifically for filter feeding. The rostrum and cranium of American paddlefish are covered with tens of thousands of sensory receptors for locating swarms of zooplankton, their primary food source. Their electroreceptors are highly sensitive, enabling them to detect weak electrical fields, which signal not only the presence of zooplankton, but also the individual feeding and swimming movements of zooplankton appendages. (Full article...)