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The pike (Esox lucius) has a distribution range that encompasses the entire northern hemisphere. Its southern range is limited by a preference for cooler water temperatures. In North America, where it exists alongside other members of the pike family it is popularly known as the northern pike. Probably the most widely known of these other American pike is the muskelunge or musky (E. masquinongy). In most of Europe there is only the one species of pike, but in the watershed of the Amur River there exists a species restricted to that environment which is, unsurprisingly, called the Amur pike (E. reicherti).
Fossil evidence suggests that the modern pike has changed little in appearance from ancient pike, E. lepidotus, which existed around twenty million years ago. The earliest fosil example of Esox lucius to be found in Britain is around half a million years old.
From study of the fossil record it is believed that pike spread eastwards from a european starting point and that this explains the increasing variety of pike species the further east you look. The north american populations being the most easterly and the most varied.
It is also strongly suggested by archaeological evidence that the pike we know today is native to mainland Britain and has not been introduced in historical times. Pike bones have been found in association with harpoon heads dated around 9,500 years BC. Pike probably re-colonized what is now the UK through the land-river bridge that existed immediately after the last ice age when the ice sheet extended as far south as Essex.
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