A fisherman named Kevin Zirjacks has been amazed after catching an extremely rare fish that is older than the dinosaurs. He was fishing in the Kansas River in the USA.
This is the 16th time such a fish has been caught in Kansas in more than 25 years, according to the state Department of Wildlife and Parks, which shared a photo of Kevin Zirjacks with the fish on Facebook and wrote: “Look this rare catch by a fisherman on the Kansas River! This large fish is a Lake Sturgeon and is very unusual to find! Prior to this catch, our biologists had only recorded 15 other catches of this fish over the past 25 years. We would like to congratulate Kevin Zirjacks on this incredibly rare catch!”
Sturgeon fish is a distant relative of sharks and can live up to 100 years. They have been in North American water systems for millions of years, with the first recorded fossil dating back to 135 million years ago – making them an ancient lake species.
That's roughly 70 million years before the last dinosaurs went extinct. Sturgeon fish can grow up to 2.2 mi long and can weigh 109 kg.
They are considered endangered in some parts of America due to overfishing in the 1800s and 1900s.