Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here,
Speaker 1: as humans, we like to think we run the show
Speaker 1: here on planet Earth, but in the grand scheme of things,
Speaker 1: we're mere infants compared with other species. The prehistoric looking
Speaker 1: alligator gar, for example, is sometimes referred to as a
Speaker 1: living fossil, and for good reason. Scientists can trace this
Speaker 1: unique looking fish back one hundred million years. A gar
Speaker 1: are types of freshwater fish currently found only in eastern
Speaker 1: North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. These seven species
Speaker 1: of gar that exist today are the only surviving members
Speaker 1: of an even more ancient group of fish that developed
Speaker 1: during the Triassic more than two hundred and forty million
Speaker 1: years ago. A gar, also called gar pikes, are named
Speaker 1: for an Anglo Saxon term for spear. The name is
Speaker 1: fitting because they are long, tubular bodies, are covered in
Speaker 1: a protective armor of hard diamond shaped scales, and their
Speaker 1: snouts are typically elongated. The alligator gar is a bit different,
Speaker 1: though it's still torpedo shaped, but its signature facial structure
Speaker 1: involves a short, wide, shovel shaped bill with two rows
Speaker 1: of pointed teeth that make it stand out amongst its
Speaker 1: fellow gar and explains the reptilian name. They do also
Speaker 1: have sets of stubby fins along their belly that look
Speaker 1: a bit like an alligator's legs from a distance. All
Speaker 1: gar can get pretty big, but alligator gar can weigh
Speaker 1: up to three hundred and fifty pounds that's one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty kilos and measure more than ten feet or
Speaker 1: three meters in length. Average sized adults are about a
Speaker 1: third to half of that though for the article this
Speaker 1: episode is based on how Stuffworks. Spoke back in twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen with one Robert H. Robbins, the collection manager in
Speaker 1: the Division of Ideology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Speaker 1: He said, the alligator gar is the largest of these
Speaker 1: seven living species of gar. Besides its massive adult size,
Speaker 1: it can be distinguished from other gar by two rows
Speaker 1: of teeth in the upper jar versus one, and a
Speaker 1: head that one measured length versus with is broader than
Speaker 1: most other gar and talk about massive. In the first
Speaker 1: week of May of twenty twenty two, a texasman pulled
Speaker 1: in an alligator gar of truly monstrous proportions. A Peyton Moore,
Speaker 1: a YouTuber educator and conservationist caught the huge fish, which
Speaker 1: was eight feet or two and a half meters long
Speaker 1: and weighed and estimated three hundred pounds or one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty six kilos. In an interview with The Houston Chronicle,
Speaker 1: Moore said it felt like somebody's car had just started
Speaker 1: up and was rolling out of the driveway and I'm
Speaker 1: hanging on to the end of it. Moore released the
Speaker 1: gar back into the bayou, but he didn't seek official certification,
Speaker 1: so his massive catch isn't eligible for the record books.
Speaker 1: The record for the largest alligator gar ever Cotton, Texas
Speaker 1: still stands with the beast hauled into a boat in
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty three, which weighed three hundred and two pounds
Speaker 1: or one hundred and thirty seven kilos. Alligator gar currently
Speaker 1: live in freshwater systems from Montana to southern Quebec to
Speaker 1: Costa Rica, but according to the Fossil Record, they once
Speaker 1: elsus swam in waters from South America to South Asia,
Speaker 1: to Africa to Europe. The alligator gar's distinctive dark, olive
Speaker 1: brown skin is one of the features that has historically
Speaker 1: made the animal a hot commodity for humans. Its thick,
Speaker 1: overlapping scales have been used to make jewelry in tools
Speaker 1: as well as a host of leather products, and the
Speaker 1: skin oil has been used as an insect repellent. Alligator
Speaker 1: gars eat blue crabs, turtles, small mammals, and waterfowl. They
Speaker 1: have few natural predators because of their size. A gar
Speaker 1: are now one of the largest freshwater fishes in North America.
Speaker 1: They can be aggressive when threatened, and certainly dangerous with
Speaker 1: all those needle sharp teeth, but there's never been a
Speaker 1: verified attack on a human by an alligator gar. According
Speaker 1: to Robins, people have been fishing for alligator gar for
Speaker 1: centuries and potentially longer, he said, the reasons for doing
Speaker 1: so vary. In my state, Florida, no one may take
Speaker 1: an alligator gar without a special permit, and such permits
Speaker 1: are limited to scientific research or species management work only.
Speaker 1: This is sound management. Alligator gar are slow growing and
Speaker 1: slow to reach sexual maturity. They aggregate and spawn in
Speaker 1: specialized habitat. All of this makes them vulnerable to overfishing
Speaker 1: and environmental degradation. Regulations in other areas vary. However, while
Speaker 1: experimented fishermen may enjoy the thrill of pursuing and catching
Speaker 1: this distinctive species. No one's exactly clamoring to cook them
Speaker 1: for dinner. The alligator gar is technically edible, but not
Speaker 1: a great meal option for a couple of reasons. A.
Speaker 1: Robins said the eggs of all gar are toxic to
Speaker 1: eat and the flesh's poor quality. In addition, all gars
Speaker 1: have a thick armor like covering of scales over their
Speaker 1: entire body. It would be very, very difficult to process
Speaker 1: a gar, and for the aforementioned reasons, not a good
Speaker 1: idea or in most cases, worth the effort. Their size
Speaker 1: also pretty much excludes them from being kept by home
Speaker 1: aquarium hobbyists. Robin said, I have seen gar for sale
Speaker 1: as pets, including fantastic color varieties, but all gar get
Speaker 1: at least close to a meter in length and are
Speaker 1: too much for all but large public aquaria. A part
Speaker 1: of the reason alligator gar have been on the receiving
Speaker 1: end of overfishing may be due to a now debunked
Speaker 1: theory that the animal was preying on a variety of
Speaker 1: other fish that humans wanted for themselves. In reality, alligator
Speaker 1: gar aren't likely to go after game fish and are
Speaker 1: happy eating a whole lot of other things like the
Speaker 1: aforementioned small mammals, waterfowl, insects, and crustaceans. A Robin said,
Speaker 1: the seven living species of gar are remnants of an
Speaker 1: ancient division of fishes that date to the early Cretaceous
Speaker 1: period about one hundred and eighteen million years ago. They
Speaker 1: are really quite special fishes with an amazingly successful body
Speaker 1: plan in biology that has really stood the test of time.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article Alligator gar one
Speaker 1: hundred million years old and still Kicking on how stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot Com, written by Michelle Constantinosky. Brain Stuff is production
Speaker 1: of by Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot
Speaker 1: Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts
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