spatula, Lepisosteus Lacepède [B. G. E.] 1803:331, 334, Pl. 6 (fig. 2) [Histoire naturelle des poissons (Lacepède) v. 5; ref. 4930] No locality [North America]. Holotype (unique): MNHN 0000-5804 (dry, mounted). Type catalog: Bertin 1940:255 [ref. 293]. •Valid as Lepisosteus spatula Lacepède 1803 -- (Tomelleri & Eberle 1990:21 [ref. 24089], Knight & Hastings 1994:149 [ref. 25560]). •Valid as Atractosteus spatula (Lacepède 1803) -- (Wiley 1976:79 [ref. 7091], Lee et al. 1980:47 [ref. 22416], Villa 1982:70 [ref. 36708], Robison & Buchanan 1988:89 [ref. 23393], Page & Burr 1991:29 [ref. 18983], Boschung 1992:29 [ref. 23239], Espinosa Pérez et al. 1993:7 [ref. 22290], Etnier & Starnes 1993:109 [ref. 22809], Mettee et al. 1996:97 [ref. 25836], McEachran & Fechhelm 1998:201 [ref. 23897], Fuller et al. 1999:25 [ref. 25838], Poly 2001:185 [ref. 25611], Ross et al. 2001:86 [ref. 25978], Wiley 2003:675 [ref. 26988], Nelson et al. 2004:58 [ref. 27807], Miller & Robison 2004:52 [ref. 27931], Boschung & Mayden 2004:114 [ref. 27995], Scharpf 2005:8 [ref. 28940], Miller 2006:83 [ref. 28615], Grande 2010:292 [ref. 31167], Page & Burr 2011:141 [ref. 31215], Page et al. 2013:58 [ref. 32708], Esmaeili et al. 2018:7 [ref. 36089], Raz-Guzmán et al. 2018:344 [ref. 36407], Robins et al. 2018:46 [ref. 35886], Hasan et al. 2020:233 [ref. 37549], Bagley et al. 2023:312 [ref. 41241], Chan et al. 2023:133 [ref. 40365], Çiçek et al. 2023:5 [ref. 40616], Mousavi-Sabet et al. 2023:29 [ref. 40667], Page et al. 2023:49 [ref. 40505], Shibananda et al. 2023:404 [ref. 40792], Çiçek et al. 2024:32 [ref. 40789], Fricke et al. 2024:107 [ref. 41622]). Current status: Valid as Atractosteus spatula (Lacepède 1803). Lepisosteidae. Distribution: North America: central and southern U.S.A. and northern Mexico. Introduced in Iraq, Iran, India, Hong Kong (China) and Java and Bali (Indonesia). Habitat: freshwater, brackish, marine.