page_title: Longnose gar
hierarchical_section_title: Longnose gar
caption_attribution_description: English: US Distribution of longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus)
context_page_description: The longnose gar, also known as needlenose gar, longnose garpike, and billy gar, is a ray-finned fish in the family Lepisosteidae. The genus may have been present in North America for about 100 million years. There are references to gars being a primitive group of bony fish because they have retained some primitive features, such as a spiral valve intestine, but gars are a highly evolved group of fish, and not primitive in the sense they are not fully developed.
  They have an olive brown to green torpedo-shaped body armored with ganoid scales, elongated jaws that form a needle-like snout nearly three times the length of its head, and a row of numerous sharp, cone-shaped teeth on each side of the upper jaw. They typically inhabit freshwater lakes, brackish water near coastal areas, swamps, and sluggish backwaters of rivers and streams. They can breathe both air and water which allows them to inhabit aquatic environments that are low in oxygen.
  Longnose gar are found along the east coast of North and Central America, and range as far west in the US as Kansas, Texas and southern New Mexico. It is the only species of the family Lepisosteidae that is found in New Mexico.
context_section_description: The longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus), also known as needlenose gar, longnose garpike, and billy gar, is a ray-finned fish in the family Lepisosteidae. The genus may have been present in North America for about 100 million years. There are references to gars being a primitive group of bony fish because they have retained some primitive features, such as a spiral valve intestine, but gars are a highly evolved group of fish, and not primitive in the sense they are not fully developed. 
  They have an olive brown to green torpedo-shaped body armored with ganoid scales, elongated jaws that form a needle-like snout nearly three times the length of its head, and a row of numerous sharp, cone-shaped teeth on each side of the upper jaw. They typically inhabit freshwater lakes, brackish water near coastal areas, swamps, and sluggish backwaters of rivers and streams. They can breathe both air and water which allows them to inhabit aquatic environments that are low in oxygen.
  Longnose gar are found along the east coast of North and Central America, and range as far west in the US as Kansas, Texas and southern New Mexico. It is the only species of the family Lepisosteidae that is found in New Mexico. Their populations are stable and in some areas abundant in the interior portions of its range.
caption: US distribution of longnose gar
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