Pallid sturgeons have a unique prehistoric appearance.
They have a flattened snout, long slender tail and are armored with five lengthwise rows of bony plates instead of scales. Their mouth is toothless and positioned under the snout for sucking small fishes and invertebrates from the river bottom. Pallid sturgeons can weigh up to 80 pounds and reach lengths of 6 feet, whereas the closely related shovelnose sturgeon rarely weights more than 8 pounds. The back and sides of pallid sturgeons are grayish-white versus the brown color of the shovelnose sturgeons. Today, pallid sturgeon populations are fragmented by mainstem dams on the Missouri River.