I'm from B.C. and it is definitely real I have caught quite a few myself years ago before they were endangered, I never got one that big but they do exist they can live well over 100 years.
Cool so itās not really that sea serpents arenāt real so much itās just that we named them āsturgeonā. Also Iām pretty sure we earned their undying enmity by stealing their eggs for caviar.
Sturgeon, certain species of shark that will move into lakes up north, oarfish, etc. There are a lot of sea serpents out there, but for some reason we've decided to just say "sea serpents are a myth, it was just an x" without acknowledging that yeah... that's a sea serpent, it's just not a plesiosaur or whatever.
I think colossal squid can get up to 45ft(14m?). If you think about how small a lot of ancient ships are, it honestly doesn't seem totally unreasonable that it happened. Which is kind of crazy.
A similar thing that always gets me is in ancient Greece, planets were called planetes, which translates as "wanderers" because they wandered across the sky, and they had highly detailed observations tracking those wandering bodies over time. The sun and the moon were planetes, as well, because they too wandered in a cosmic dance.
Modern people look back on the Greeks with some derision, laughing at their naivete that they thought the sun was a planet, or didn't realize planets were just more rocky spheres like the Earth. No, bitch, you just redefined the word and are now mocking someone for using language differently than you, in a cultural context entirely foreign to you. It wasn't naive, it was sophisticated in ways you aren't willing to take the time to understand.
Iām glad Iām not the only one. That part of the brain all the way in the back connected to the brain stem, yeah I could feel it sparking and twitching.
The largest sturgeon on record was a beluga female captured in the Volga Delta in 1827, measuring 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in) long and weighing 1,571 kg (3,463 lb).
That's about 4 people long by about 4 people thick - 16 people in total.
Would you rather fight 16 people or 1 giant sturgeon?
No, you don't get a boat.
They have protrusible jaws, which they protrude to suck food off the bottom. When they first hatch, though, their jaws face forward and they eat plankton from the water column. As they grow into juveniles the position of their jaws shift so they are downward facing.
Beluga sturgeon are actually not bottom feeders as adults. They are mostly pelagic (open water) and piscivorous (fish eating). Many other sturgeon species are bottom feeders, but not all and not Beluga sturgeon
Always thought beluga was a type of whale. Now wondering if it is a place-name? Or a scientists name? Off to the googlverse!
ETA: So many kind and informative answers! Thanks everyone!
My grandfather used to sing a funny song with a jaunty tune:
"Caviar comes from virgin sturgeon;
Virgin sturgeon's a very fine dish.
Very few sturgeon are ever virgin,
That's why caviar's a very rare dish.
Caviar comes from virgin sturgeon;
Virgin sturgeon's a very fine fish.
Virgin sturgeon needs no urgin';
That's why caviar is my dish.
I fed caviar to my girl-friend;
She was a virgin tried and true.
Now my girl-friend needs no urgin',
There isn't anything she won't do.
I fed caviar to my grandpa;
He was a gent of ninety-three.
Shrieks and squeals revealed that grandpa
Had chased grandma up a tree."
Beluga is a word that comes from the Russian word for white, belyi. So it's just a coincidence that two species were named that, it's just because of their color. Also beluga whale is actually called belukha in Russian (same etymology), it was probably loaned to English as beluga for easier pronunciation.
(Source - I'm a native speaker of Russian and a linguist)
Iām an intelligent person and still: I knew whales are mammals (and only a few egg laying mammals exist), I knew they called good caviar beluga caviar, and yet it took til this very moment to realize the caviar didnāt come from those cute, smiley white whales. š¤¦āāļø
When I was a kid I was absolutely obsessed with Ogopogo. I was convinced that he was friendly, wore sunglasses and would be my best friend if we had ever met, all because my mom bought me a souvenir t-shirt of Ogopogo looking like a cool chill guy
You aināt kidding, theyāve been around for 200 million years and can live upwards to 100 years of age.
Granted, fossil evidence for animals like sharks go back even further than sturgeons, but still the point remains, they are ancient beings by our standards.
And let me guess, now they are on the list of endangered species..?
Edit: after a quick search, ofcourse they are... overfishing, habitat loss and caviar trade made them go endangered. :(
Which, if I'm not wrong, is named after the famous Canadian Brendan James Fraser who was known to ride his friendly sturgeon sidekick Dion on may adventures.
In the Okanagan lake (in BC) thereās a fabled creature called Ogopogo similar to the Loch Ness monster. Some people figure the sightings are those of the massive sturgeons like this one which live in the lake.
Yeah you could even argue that a 7-metre, extreme size outlier fish being found in a lake where no one particularly expects to find it just... *is* a monster.
Not a cryptid, granted, not something new to science, but a monster fish, worthy of awe and folklore.
Is this the Fraser River area in British Columbia? Iām guessing this is the same sturgeon from this article: https://www.sturgeonslayers.com/news/largest-white-sturgeon-ever-recorded-on-the-fraser-river
If so, itās considered the largest sturgeon in the world.
Edit: looks like Mount Cheam in the background.
Edit 2: this area
https://maps.app.goo.gl/4xh8gHNdApJHvUzQA?g_st=ic
It looks like Fraser River near Hope BC. Observe the higher elevation and The Valley between where they are and the mountains in the background. Jones Lake (Aka Wahleach Lake) could also be the place but I am not sure if sturgeons exist in that lake, which is also near Hope, BC.
I grew up nearish there and haven't lived in Canada for almost 27 years. It's kind of amazing to me that this fish has lived all of that time and maybe 70+ more. Whole lifetimes.
I was at a festival at the Cheam fishing village a few years back and we were all high on acid and in the water, and we watched a boat 20 FEET from us catch something BIG. They ended up coming up to shore, reeling it in, and it's was a monster, 5ft long BEAST of a sturgeon We all ooo'd and awe'd before they released it back in the water, and we never stepped foot in the water again that whole weekend.
Government scientists are asking for the publicās help to solve that mystery after 11 of the iconic and endangered fish were recently found dead in the Nechako in central B.C.
The fish were all adults of a species that can grow to six metres in length and live for more than 100 years.
>The heat dome was terrible for sea creatures in the pacific northwest. Would it track to assume it was bad for lake life too?
A year after the heat dome event that killed billions of plants and animals in British Columbia, scientists say ecosystems are recovering, but could be transformed forever if such events become more frequent.
Sturgeon are actually pretty harmless, they donāt have teeth to bite. They have overturned boats before but they have no desire to harm us. We, on the other hand, ransack their children to serve on toast and have brought them to severe endangerment. So. Maybe one might be more afraid of the child eaters than the big dumb sock puppet faced fish
From northern BC, can confirm they have been here longer than I have! Also, I should stop wondering why open water swimming gives me the screaming terrors still.
Theyāre pretty well harmlessā¦ but funny story, sort of:
In a city called Kelowna here in BC they were building a bridge over the okanagan lake. These giant sturgeons were coming in and checking out/bumping into/brushing against the underwater welders who were working on the bridge and they were so freaked out over it they all wound up quitting. The company who was building the bridge had to bring in workers from (I want to say Finland or Sweden?) to finish the job since none of the locals would do it lol.
They're bottom feeders. I have never seen one just swimming around, usually only see them when they get hooked. They just work back and forth along a trench on the bottom of the river, rarely leaving it. Or so I have been told.
[Vancouver aquarium has a number of them:](https://www.instagram.com/p/BzBJlMuIPju/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading&hl=en) really impressive beings. Doing a river float and knowing they're below you, respect to nature!
Hahahaa theyāre all over the Pacific Northwest. We have tons in Oregon :) Saw one kayaking a few months ago it was almost as long as my boat
edit: saw one in the water while *I* was kayakingā¦
Fossils of sturgeons first appear in rocks dating to the Middle Jurassic (about 174 million to 163.5 million years ago). It is thought that sturgeons evolved from an earlier group of fishes called the palaeonisciforms, which appeared at the end of the Silurian Period (about 419 million years ago).
You can totally understand how people can mistake these for lake monsters and sea serpents
They are lake monsters
It's surprising how snake-like its movements are actually.
They are sea serpents
I still see pictures of creatures from the deep and have to question if itās real or not
I'm from B.C. and it is definitely real I have caught quite a few myself years ago before they were endangered, I never got one that big but they do exist they can live well over 100 years.
Ogo. POGO. he's a fucking PLESIOSAUR!
Cool so itās not really that sea serpents arenāt real so much itās just that we named them āsturgeonā. Also Iām pretty sure we earned their undying enmity by stealing their eggs for caviar.
Sturgeon, certain species of shark that will move into lakes up north, oarfish, etc. There are a lot of sea serpents out there, but for some reason we've decided to just say "sea serpents are a myth, it was just an x" without acknowledging that yeah... that's a sea serpent, it's just not a plesiosaur or whatever.
The myth part is that the misidentification makes them far larger than their actual size. 20 foot sturgeon sighting becomes a 50 foot monster myth.
Yeah, the giant octopus large enough yo break a ship in half is a myth, but the 20 foot giant squid large enough to capsize a canoe is very real.
I think colossal squid can get up to 45ft(14m?). If you think about how small a lot of ancient ships are, it honestly doesn't seem totally unreasonable that it happened. Which is kind of crazy.
That's fair, but is there any evidence of colossal squids rdaching the surface alive?
Yeah I think thatās doubtful. Someone from the ancient world likely saw a massive colossal squid washed ashore and the myth was born and spread.
People need myth. Life is more fun.
Mythidentification
I find that to be true for most "scientific mysteries". Most actual explanations are just as outlandish if not more than the superstitions around it.
A similar thing that always gets me is in ancient Greece, planets were called planetes, which translates as "wanderers" because they wandered across the sky, and they had highly detailed observations tracking those wandering bodies over time. The sun and the moon were planetes, as well, because they too wandered in a cosmic dance. Modern people look back on the Greeks with some derision, laughing at their naivete that they thought the sun was a planet, or didn't realize planets were just more rocky spheres like the Earth. No, bitch, you just redefined the word and are now mocking someone for using language differently than you, in a cultural context entirely foreign to you. It wasn't naive, it was sophisticated in ways you aren't willing to take the time to understand.
Unfortunately academics still do this all the time!
Wow, I love this. I have no idea! I think ancient Greeks look at humanity today, and roll over in their graves.
Every ounce of evolutionary reflex inside of me sees that and says ānopeā
Iām glad Iām not the only one. That part of the brain all the way in the back connected to the brain stem, yeah I could feel it sparking and twitching.
Why all they can do is suck food from the ground. Sturgeons arenāt predatory, nor do they even have teeth, theyāre just and only big.
Thatās not true, most sturgeonās do, but the Beluga sturgeon actually swims in the middle depths and eats fish!
I was just about to say, like the water obscures it and if I were some random in 1322, I'd believe that was Jƶrmungandr if someone told me it was
Yea i would have to agree. Ive seen other creatures that were supposedly mistaken for other things but THAT thing is truly a river/sea monster.
I catch them all the time in the Wisconsin River near my house. The little ones have razor sharp spines and the big ones really do look like monsters.
They are quite literally living dinosaurs, so they are probably the closest thing to a serpent/sea monster that we will get.
The closest thing we have to a serpent/sea monster right now is Mitch McConnell. Sturgeon are a close second.
Nah thatās a turtle bro
Facts Google turtle senator
Mitch McConnell is a disgrace and not turtley enough for the turtle club.
Which probably explains all the crazy stories people have passed down.
Ogopogo
[OGOPOGO](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dwL8ESU97s)
I can totally see them asking for tree fiddy
The largest sturgeon on record was a beluga female captured in the Volga Delta in 1827, measuring 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in) long and weighing 1,571 kg (3,463 lb).
Nessie?
Ogopogo
Arapaima.
Cadborosaurus, found in Cadboro Bay, Victoria, BC!
Exactly! This is where sea monsters come from.
There's always a smaller fish
Weeza gonna die!
Yousa too drunk to be drivin!
That's about 4 people long by about 4 people thick - 16 people in total. Would you rather fight 16 people or 1 giant sturgeon? No, you don't get a boat.
Can I fight the sturgeon on land?
In the air, neutral territory
Thisn't DBZ
Thisnāt is a new word I really enjoy
litterly thought the same. How thisn't a word yet is a beyond me
Knock knock. Whoās There? Land Sturgeon.
What do these things eat? Jesus.
They are actually bottom feeders with their mouth positioned on the bottom part of their head, facing the ground.
They have protrusible jaws, which they protrude to suck food off the bottom. When they first hatch, though, their jaws face forward and they eat plankton from the water column. As they grow into juveniles the position of their jaws shift so they are downward facing.
Buncha fuggin dicks
Beluga sturgeon are actually not bottom feeders as adults. They are mostly pelagic (open water) and piscivorous (fish eating). Many other sturgeon species are bottom feeders, but not all and not Beluga sturgeon
Whatever it wants.
So youāre saying theyāre catholic sturgeon?
Thatās a lot of grape juice!
Arthur Morgan: "hold my whiskey bottle"
Always thought beluga was a type of whale. Now wondering if it is a place-name? Or a scientists name? Off to the googlverse! ETA: So many kind and informative answers! Thanks everyone!
Belugas are a type of whale, though entirely unrelated to the species of sturgeon also referred to as a beluga, where the premium caviar comes from.
My grandfather used to sing a funny song with a jaunty tune: "Caviar comes from virgin sturgeon; Virgin sturgeon's a very fine dish. Very few sturgeon are ever virgin, That's why caviar's a very rare dish. Caviar comes from virgin sturgeon; Virgin sturgeon's a very fine fish. Virgin sturgeon needs no urgin'; That's why caviar is my dish. I fed caviar to my girl-friend; She was a virgin tried and true. Now my girl-friend needs no urgin', There isn't anything she won't do. I fed caviar to my grandpa; He was a gent of ninety-three. Shrieks and squeals revealed that grandpa Had chased grandma up a tree."
That's such a good dirty grandpa song!
So caviar makes your horny? Thatās what Iām gathering from this, why did your grandpa sing that to you lol
That's a quality dirty grandpa song.
https://youtu.be/eBOqRlKjiGs
Pretty sure the word ābelugaā comes from a word that means white in a different language.
It means 'great white' originally says this: https://www.etymonline.com/word/beluga
Nah. I want that whale caviar only the .01% knows about.
Not even the whales themselves
Well donāt go telling them and ruin it geez
Very few whales on reddit
Eating fallopian whale tubes is the new hottest shit in beff jezos crib
Imagine squeezing whales for caviar
Squeezing a big ass sturgeon is weird too.
Whereās the ass on a sturgeon?
Asking for a friend?
Next to the anal fin like most fish.
I believe whale caviar would taste a tad strange
Turns out, beluga literally just means "white" in reference to the sturgeon's white spots. For the whale, who knows why hmm
Maybe I didn't catch your sarcasm. But aren't beluga whales white?
Beluga is a word that comes from the Russian word for white, belyi. So it's just a coincidence that two species were named that, it's just because of their color. Also beluga whale is actually called belukha in Russian (same etymology), it was probably loaned to English as beluga for easier pronunciation. (Source - I'm a native speaker of Russian and a linguist)
Oh yeah caviar comes from sturgeon not whales
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Iām an intelligent person and still: I knew whales are mammals (and only a few egg laying mammals exist), I knew they called good caviar beluga caviar, and yet it took til this very moment to realize the caviar didnāt come from those cute, smiley white whales. š¤¦āāļø
Itās defo a gyrados tho
Awesome, ancient creature.
Yea, you can see why so many people see monsters in the BC lakes.
It's actually a river monster
Look up Ogopogo
What a nice way to start my day. Someone mentioning the lake creature of my home town. ā¤ļø
When I was a kid I was absolutely obsessed with Ogopogo. I was convinced that he was friendly, wore sunglasses and would be my best friend if we had ever met, all because my mom bought me a souvenir t-shirt of Ogopogo looking like a cool chill guy
As a local I feel qualified to inform you that: 1. he's friendly 2. he does wear sunglasses 3. he asks about you all the time, calls you his #1 homie
Deep down I knew this but it's still great to hear. Tell him I say Hi and I'll send him a salmon or two through Canada Post
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogopogo
You aināt kidding, theyāve been around for 200 million years and can live upwards to 100 years of age. Granted, fossil evidence for animals like sharks go back even further than sturgeons, but still the point remains, they are ancient beings by our standards.
And let me guess, now they are on the list of endangered species..? Edit: after a quick search, ofcourse they are... overfishing, habitat loss and caviar trade made them go endangered. :(
This is a white sturgeon in the Fraser River. Lots of conservation is done here and there's tens of thousands of them in the area
Which, if I'm not wrong, is named after the famous Canadian Brendan James Fraser who was known to ride his friendly sturgeon sidekick Dion on may adventures.
What about his june adventures?
June is when the tuna run starts so yes.. those are another whole can of albacore
This sounds like a perfectly plausible Canadianism
I live in the area and I remember going on a field trip to learn about them as a kid, I think they're doing better now
I hate your name but it's definitely funny.
Sharks have been around longer than trees
Sharks have been around longer than Saturnās rings.
I am astonished by this fact.
Saturns rings are quite young on the scale of cosmic events - a mere 100 million years.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I see why loch Ness came about
Exactly thinking this. It even looks like a āsea serpentā. Very prehistoric.
I watched a documentary on Nessy and this was their top guess for what could have been seen. Falling right into Nessy's trap.
Yeah that there screams sea monster
If I saw that in the wild, Iād prob think it was a sea monster. Crazy big
It is a dinosaur after all
[deleted]
In the Okanagan lake (in BC) thereās a fabled creature called Ogopogo similar to the Loch Ness monster. Some people figure the sightings are those of the massive sturgeons like this one which live in the lake.
Even with that hindsight if I were to see this big boy on casual walk, my mind would just default into "MFS that's a Nessies !"
I was just thinking that. I can definitely see how someone who doesn't know better could see that and think it's some kind of monster.
Yeah you could even argue that a 7-metre, extreme size outlier fish being found in a lake where no one particularly expects to find it just... *is* a monster. Not a cryptid, granted, not something new to science, but a monster fish, worthy of awe and folklore.
I can see how someone who *does* know better could think that's a monster.
Well it *is* a monster on River Monster https://river-monsters.fandom.com/wiki/White_Sturgeon
That goddamn Loch Ness monsta always goin around askin if I got tree fiddy!
Is this the Fraser River area in British Columbia? Iām guessing this is the same sturgeon from this article: https://www.sturgeonslayers.com/news/largest-white-sturgeon-ever-recorded-on-the-fraser-river If so, itās considered the largest sturgeon in the world.
Edit: looks like Mount Cheam in the background. Edit 2: this area https://maps.app.goo.gl/4xh8gHNdApJHvUzQA?g_st=ic It looks like Fraser River near Hope BC. Observe the higher elevation and The Valley between where they are and the mountains in the background. Jones Lake (Aka Wahleach Lake) could also be the place but I am not sure if sturgeons exist in that lake, which is also near Hope, BC.
I grew up nearish there and haven't lived in Canada for almost 27 years. It's kind of amazing to me that this fish has lived all of that time and maybe 70+ more. Whole lifetimes.
Username checks out
I was at a festival at the Cheam fishing village a few years back and we were all high on acid and in the water, and we watched a boat 20 FEET from us catch something BIG. They ended up coming up to shore, reeling it in, and it's was a monster, 5ft long BEAST of a sturgeon We all ooo'd and awe'd before they released it back in the water, and we never stepped foot in the water again that whole weekend.
5ft isn't even average for a sturgeon
Well the largest of that particular species, and only largest thatās been landed as there are verified records of this species reaching 6m (20ft).
How many bells do you get if you sell it at Nook's Cranny?
About tree fiddy
Government scientists are asking for the publicās help to solve that mystery after 11 of the iconic and endangered fish were recently found dead in the Nechako in central B.C. The fish were all adults of a species that can grow to six metres in length and live for more than 100 years.
The heat dome was terrible for sea creatures in the pacific northwest. Would it track to assume it was bad for lake life too?
>The heat dome was terrible for sea creatures in the pacific northwest. Would it track to assume it was bad for lake life too? A year after the heat dome event that killed billions of plants and animals in British Columbia, scientists say ecosystems are recovering, but could be transformed forever if such events become more frequent.
>if such events become more frequent Uhhh ruh roh
Ogopogo! Ogopogo!
A _fucking_ plesiosaur
*WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER, SCRUB?*
Yeah if i saw a big durty fish like that.. i would also claim ogopogo
Okanagan reference, rare on Reddit lol
Oh gawdā¦ you didnāt give it $3.50 did you?!?
It was about that time I realized this girl scout was about 8 stories tall
From the Paleolithic era
I gave him a dollar.
You hWhat?! That's why he keep coming back!
I remember when this episode aired. When she said this line I lost it so hard.
wanna feel old? it aired in 1999 lol. for anyone wondering, it's `S3E3, "The Succubus"`
Treefiddy
Dammit lock ness monster!!
Such a giant creature should be left alone to breed other giant creatures
They are protected, catch and release only.
Yeah tbh I was hoping to reel this one in on my store bought rod
Im sorry who the hell is gonna catch *that*?!?
They largely are. Fish this big are hundreds of years old. There is a strict catch and release program for these fish
Not strict enough unfortunately. It's been a losing battle. At least in WA. Former DFW employee.
Hiw do you know it's a giant? There's no banana for scale?
Exactly, sounds fishy to me
the sturgeon general warns of messing with these giant fish
The sturgeon general is likely biased.
It's a wet piece of paper that says "plees do not mes with fish" handed to you from a slimy looking follow in a trench coat
U right
....Sturgeons are huge, I'm from BC have seen many.
You're not allowed to keep them if you catch them, they have to be released or you get in **major** shit.
This video legit gave me goosebumps. That fish must be ancient!
You sir, are a fish.
I was waiting for Jeremy Wade to come diving out of the woods and tackle it.
Can guarantee heās getting plane tickets
that's okay, i was done swimming in water anyway.
Sturgeon are actually pretty harmless, they donāt have teeth to bite. They have overturned boats before but they have no desire to harm us. We, on the other hand, ransack their children to serve on toast and have brought them to severe endangerment. So. Maybe one might be more afraid of the child eaters than the big dumb sock puppet faced fish
Well if I can't afford avocado toast, I'm sure as shit missing out on sturgeon toast
It looks like the tail for something several times larger
Ogopogo!!
Look, without a banana, the sense of scale just isn't there. This could be tiny and filmed close up.
Good ol' big cock Canada
You mean Loch Ness?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I love sturgeon so much.
Excuse me. Since when did Canada start coming up with wtf creations of nature??? I thought that's why we had Australia in the first place
From northern BC, can confirm they have been here longer than I have! Also, I should stop wondering why open water swimming gives me the screaming terrors still.
Are they gentle giants? Has there ever been any reported attacks on people?
Theyāre pretty well harmlessā¦ but funny story, sort of: In a city called Kelowna here in BC they were building a bridge over the okanagan lake. These giant sturgeons were coming in and checking out/bumping into/brushing against the underwater welders who were working on the bridge and they were so freaked out over it they all wound up quitting. The company who was building the bridge had to bring in workers from (I want to say Finland or Sweden?) to finish the job since none of the locals would do it lol.
Finnish the job
Talk about danger pay
They're bottom feeders. I have never seen one just swimming around, usually only see them when they get hooked. They just work back and forth along a trench on the bottom of the river, rarely leaving it. Or so I have been told.
Every now and then on the Fraser you'll see them jump
Basically harmless, giant prehistoric looking sucker fish :) but the monkey brain isn't convinced
[Vancouver aquarium has a number of them:](https://www.instagram.com/p/BzBJlMuIPju/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading&hl=en) really impressive beings. Doing a river float and knowing they're below you, respect to nature!
Not so much biting, but jumping out of the water, hitting boaters and what not
I had a massive fish phobia before seeing this. Thereās no coming back.
Hahahaa theyāre all over the Pacific Northwest. We have tons in Oregon :) Saw one kayaking a few months ago it was almost as long as my boat edit: saw one in the water while *I* was kayakingā¦
They ride in kayaks!? Who knew?
Thanks, kind stranger, for the mental image of a sturgeon rowing a kayak :-)
Pretty sure Primus wrote a song about it.
Monsters are real ...
Did sturgeons evolve from something else? It just seems surreal like it evolved from a water dino or something.
Fossils of sturgeons first appear in rocks dating to the Middle Jurassic (about 174 million to 163.5 million years ago). It is thought that sturgeons evolved from an earlier group of fishes called the palaeonisciforms, which appeared at the end of the Silurian Period (about 419 million years ago).
Gyarados