Fish and Reptiles of the American River Parkway

American shad

The American shad, Alosa sapidissima, is a species of anadromous fish distributed from southern Labrador to northern Florida. American shad are in family Clupeidae of order Clupeiformes. They are not closely related to the other North American shads. Rather, it seems to form a lineage that diverged from a common ancestor of the European taxa before these diversified...