Alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) is a freshwater, brackish species recorded in the United States.
Scientific name: Atractosteus spatula · Water: Freshwater, Brackish
Size: up to 300 cm
The alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) is the largest species in the gar family Lepisosteidae and among the largest freshwater fishes in North America, a euryhaline member of the clade Ginglymodi whose group dates back over 100 million years to the Early Cretaceous. It is often called a "living fossil" because it retains features of its early ancestors such as a spiral-valve intestine and the ability to breathe both air and water, and its common name comes from its resemblance to the American alligator, with a broad snout and long, sharp teeth; unlike other gars, its upper jaw carries a dual row of large teeth and it is a stalking ambush predator that also takes floating waterfowl and small mammals. Its torpedo-shaped body is usually brown or olive with a lighter grey or yellow belly, and its ganoid scales are bone-like, rhomboidal and enamel-covered, forming nearly impenetrable armour; it is suggested the species can reach 10 ft (3.0 m). US populations are now concentrated in the southern states and into Mexico, where it ranges from freshwater lakes and swamps to brackish marshes, estuaries and bays of the Gulf of Mexico, having been extirpated from much of its historic range by habitat destruction, culling and unrestricted harvest. For nearly half a century it was treated as a "trash fish" and a nuisance species targeted for elimination by state and federal authorities, but since the 1980s it has been recognised as an important ecosystem element and is now afforded protection by resource agencies and monitored under the Lacey Act rules. American anglers target it as a heavy-tackle, mostly catch-and-release trophy in Texas and the other Gulf states, fishing from boats and from the bank with cut bait.
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