Polypteridae

Saddled bichir

Polypterus endlicherii

Elongated Polypterid Fish from the Nile Basin

• Tropical
• Regional distribution
• Freshwater fish
• Africa
• Elongated
• Compressed cross-section
• Large
• Tropical fish

Polypterus endlicheri, the saddled bichir, is one of the fourteen extant species in the Polypteridae family. Polypterus comes from the Greek words poly and pteron, roughly translating to "many finned", while endlicheri is derived from the Austrian botanist Stephen Endlicher, who first identified the fish from a collection at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna. The common name, saddled bichir, comes from the saddle-like patterns that line the dorsal side of the fish.