Woman Finds Rare ‘Prehistoric’ Fish After Walking Along Alabama’s Mobile Bay

A woman has shared rare photos of a menacing looking fish carcass covered in hard protective armor.

Tami May, who teaches for the Mobile County Public, was walking the shores of Alabama’s Mobile Bay on January 7, when she found the “living dinosaur,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

May said : “When I was coming back from the pier I noticed something in the water. It was large and upside down. Floating upside down.”

She measured the fish at 5 feet, 1 inch.

“I measured it. Took some pictures tried to do my best science attempt at it and reported it to NOAA officially by e-mail,” May said.

Woman discovers gulf sturgeon in Alabama

The fish has been identified as a gulf sturgeon, an ancient species that can grow to 9 feet and nearly 400 pounds, NOAA Fisheries reports.

“It is a protected threatened species and rare to see. As required I notified NOAA,” May wrote on Facebook.

“The lack of prolific breeding, dams up the rivers in Mobile Bay, dredging and possibly over harvesting put them on the protected list in the 1990s, but by then they were so rare it is doubtful they would rebound.”

Photos show she found the fish floating upside down, void of color and with its head nearly detached.

No predators or scavengers appear to have taken a bite of the carcass, which might be credited to the rows of thorny scales that cover gulf sturgeon. Their appearance has remained largely unchanged for 200 million years, hence their reputation as a “prehistoric fish.”

The sturgeon was to undergo a necropsy at the University of Southern Mississippi “so scientists can learn more about this unusual fish,” the Mobile County Public Schools reported on Facebook.

Gulf sturgeon once thrived along the Gulf Coast between the Mississippi River and Tampa Bay, Florida, NOAA Fisheries reports.

Like salmon, the species hatches in freshwater rivers, then juveniles make their way to sea. They then “return to the rivers to over summer or spawn (lay eggs) when they reach adulthood,” NOAA says.

They can weigh up to 50 pounds. They can live up to 50 years and they are listed as threatened making this a very important find.

And has now become a very important lesson for a science teacher to pass on to her students.

“Some of them are super excited and some of them are like that’s gross but either way what I think is the best lesson is that I still get excited. I’m a teacher but I like to learn first so when I get to learn cool things like that, and I get excited about it I bring it to my students,” May said.

It’s the best lesson of all. One that can be learned by just being curious when you stumble on something different.

The sturgeon is now at the University of Southern Mississippi so researchers can learn more about the prehistoric fish.

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