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<br />Bailey and Cross (1954) measured.morphological characteristics of pallid <br />sturgeon collected from the middle and lower Missouri River and middle <br />Mississippi River. They found the ratio between the lengths of the inner and <br />outer barbels of pallid sturgeon and shovel nose sturgeon to be one of the <br />quickest and most reliable means for separation of these two Scaphfrhynchus <br />species: the outer barbel is 1.2-1.5 times longer than the inner barbel in <br />the shovel nose and 1.7 to 2.4 times longer in the pallid. Bailey and Cross <br />(1954) also found that the inner barbels of pallid sturgeon typically lie <br />ahead of the outer barbels, unlike on shovel nose sturgeon, where they are <br />typically in-line. Furthermore, in pallid sturgeon, all the barbels are <br />further back on the lower surface of the snout than in shovel nose sturgeon: <br />the "snout tip to outer barbel/mouth to inner barbel" ratio varies from 2.3 to <br />3.3 in pallid sturgeon and 1.3 to 2.2 in shovel nose sturgeon (Bailey and Cross <br />1954) (Figure 1). <br /> <br />ShovelDole <br />Sturleon <br /> <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />." <br /> <br />Figure 1: Comparative diagrams of the ventral surface of the head of <br />shovel nose sturgeon and pallid sturgeon, showing several measurement <br />ratios of value for identification., Redrawn from Bailey and Cross <br />(1954). <br /> <br />2 <br /> <br />" ,~. ~ _. <br />