Bowfin Species Stock Video Footage

The bowfin (Amia calva) is a bony fish related to gars in the infraclass Holostei. Common names include mudfish, mud pike, dogfish, griddle, grinnel, swamp trout, and choupique. It is regarded as taxonomic relicts, being the sole surviving species of the order Amiiformes, which dates from the Jurassic to the Eocene, persisting to the present. Although highly evolved, the bowfin is often referred to as a "primitive fish" because they have retained some morphological characteristics of their early ancestors. Bowfins are demersal freshwater piscivores native to North America, and commonly found throughout much of the eastern United States, and in southern Ontario and Quebec. Fossil deposits indicate Amiiformes were once widespread in both freshwater and marine environments across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Learn more about Bowfin