How Do Alligator Gar Work?

These toothy fish are some of the largest in North America. Learn how they've lasted 100 million years in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/alligator-gar-100-million-years-old-and-still-kicking.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here,
as humans, we like to think we run the show
here on planet Earth, but in the grand scheme of things,
we're mere infants compared with other species. The prehistoric looking
alligator gar, for example, is sometimes referred to as a

(00:25):
living fossil, and for good reason. Scientists can trace this
unique looking fish back one hundred million years. A gar
are types of freshwater fish currently found only in eastern
North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. These seven species
of gar that exist today are the only surviving members

(00:45):
of an even more ancient group of fish that developed
during the Triassic more than two hundred and forty million
years ago. A gar, also called gar pikes, are named
for an Anglo Saxon term for spear. The name is
fitting because they are long, tubular bodies, are covered in
a protective armor of hard diamond shaped scales, and their
snouts are typically elongated. The alligator gar is a bit different,

(01:10):
though it's still torpedo shaped, but its signature facial structure
involves a short, wide, shovel shaped bill with two rows
of pointed teeth that make it stand out amongst its
fellow gar and explains the reptilian name. They do also
have sets of stubby fins along their belly that look
a bit like an alligator's legs from a distance. All

(01:32):
gar can get pretty big, but alligator gar can weigh
up to three hundred and fifty pounds that's one hundred
and sixty kilos and measure more than ten feet or
three meters in length. Average sized adults are about a
third to half of that though for the article this
episode is based on how Stuffworks. Spoke back in twenty
nineteen with one Robert H. Robbins, the collection manager in

(01:55):
the Division of Ideology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
He said, the alligator gar is the largest of these
seven living species of gar. Besides its massive adult size,
it can be distinguished from other gar by two rows
of teeth in the upper jar versus one, and a
head that one measured length versus with is broader than

(02:15):
most other gar and talk about massive. In the first
week of May of twenty twenty two, a texasman pulled
in an alligator gar of truly monstrous proportions. A Peyton Moore,
a YouTuber educator and conservationist caught the huge fish, which
was eight feet or two and a half meters long
and weighed and estimated three hundred pounds or one hundred

(02:37):
and thirty six kilos. In an interview with The Houston Chronicle,
Moore said it felt like somebody's car had just started
up and was rolling out of the driveway and I'm
hanging on to the end of it. Moore released the
gar back into the bayou, but he didn't seek official certification,
so his massive catch isn't eligible for the record books.

(02:57):
The record for the largest alligator gar ever Cotton, Texas
still stands with the beast hauled into a boat in
nineteen fifty three, which weighed three hundred and two pounds
or one hundred and thirty seven kilos. Alligator gar currently
live in freshwater systems from Montana to southern Quebec to
Costa Rica, but according to the Fossil Record, they once

(03:19):
elsus swam in waters from South America to South Asia,
to Africa to Europe. The alligator gar's distinctive dark, olive
brown skin is one of the features that has historically
made the animal a hot commodity for humans. Its thick,
overlapping scales have been used to make jewelry in tools
as well as a host of leather products, and the

(03:40):
skin oil has been used as an insect repellent. Alligator
gars eat blue crabs, turtles, small mammals, and waterfowl. They
have few natural predators because of their size. A gar
are now one of the largest freshwater fishes in North America.
They can be aggressive when threatened, and certainly dangerous with

(04:00):
all those needle sharp teeth, but there's never been a
verified attack on a human by an alligator gar. According
to Robins, people have been fishing for alligator gar for
centuries and potentially longer, he said, the reasons for doing
so vary. In my state, Florida, no one may take
an alligator gar without a special permit, and such permits

(04:21):
are limited to scientific research or species management work only.
This is sound management. Alligator gar are slow growing and
slow to reach sexual maturity. They aggregate and spawn in
specialized habitat. All of this makes them vulnerable to overfishing
and environmental degradation. Regulations in other areas vary. However, while

(04:44):
experimented fishermen may enjoy the thrill of pursuing and catching
this distinctive species. No one's exactly clamoring to cook them
for dinner. The alligator gar is technically edible, but not
a great meal option for a couple of reasons. A.
Robins said the eggs of all gar are toxic to
eat and the flesh's poor quality. In addition, all gars

(05:05):
have a thick armor like covering of scales over their
entire body. It would be very, very difficult to process
a gar, and for the aforementioned reasons, not a good
idea or in most cases, worth the effort. Their size
also pretty much excludes them from being kept by home
aquarium hobbyists. Robin said, I have seen gar for sale

(05:27):
as pets, including fantastic color varieties, but all gar get
at least close to a meter in length and are
too much for all but large public aquaria. A part
of the reason alligator gar have been on the receiving
end of overfishing may be due to a now debunked
theory that the animal was preying on a variety of

(05:48):
other fish that humans wanted for themselves. In reality, alligator
gar aren't likely to go after game fish and are
happy eating a whole lot of other things like the
aforementioned small mammals, waterfowl, insects, and crustaceans. A Robin said,
the seven living species of gar are remnants of an
ancient division of fishes that date to the early Cretaceous

(06:10):
period about one hundred and eighteen million years ago. They
are really quite special fishes with an amazingly successful body
plan in biology that has really stood the test of time.
Today's episode is based on the article Alligator gar one
hundred million years old and still Kicking on how stuffworks

(06:30):
dot Com, written by Michelle Constantinosky. Brain Stuff is production
of by Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot
Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts
from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.