Product Description
Our Plastic Alligator Gar This hard plastic and colorful alligator gar toy is well-made and realistic in its shape, detailed scales, and coloration. Wonderfully proportioned, 5 1/2 inches long, it will fit nicely into a pond, river, or lake diorama. Our alligator gar may be useful for a school project or as a party favor or novelty item. Check out our other gar and fish toys and gifts.
Alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) are ray-finned euryhaline fish related to bowfin in the infraclass Holostei (ho'-las-te-i). The fossil record traces their existence to the Early Cretaceous over a hundred million years ago. They are the largest species in the gar family, and among the largest freshwater fishes in North America. Gars are often referred to as "primitive fishes", or "living fossils" because they have retained some morphological characteristics of their earliest ancestors, such as a spiral valve intestine which is also common to the digestive system of sharks, and the ability to breathe both air and water. Their common name was derived from their resemblance to the American alligator, particularly their broad snout and long sharp teeth. Anecdotal evidence in several scientific reports suggest that an alligator gar can grow up to 10 ft (3.0 m) in length and weigh as much as 300 lb (140 kg); however in 2011 the largest alligator gar ever caught and officially recorded was 8 ft 5 1?4 in (2.572 m) long, weighed 327 lb (148 kg), and was 47 in (120 cm) around the girth.
