gar

gar member of the family Lepisosteidae, freshwater fishes found in the warmer rivers and lakes of the S United States, Central America, Mexico, and the West Indies. Gars are highly predacious and destroy many useful fish. They are cylindrical fishes with long jaws and formidable teeth; their peculiar armature of diamond-shaped platelike scales, composed of a hard inorganic salt, is often found also in fossil fish. The largest species is the 9-ft (275-cm) alligator gar of the Mississippi valley. Others are the long-nosed gar ( Lepisosteus osseus ), the spotted gar, and the short-nosed gar. The name garfish is sometimes used for the gar but is more correctly applied to the saltwater gar (see needlefish ). Gars are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Osteichthyes, order Lepisosteiformes, family Lepisosteidae.

gar See LEPISOSTEIDAE.