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Longnose Gar (Lepisosteus osseus) Skull To us, this skull looks pretty monstrous. And it does indeed belong to a powerful predator -- the Longnose Gar. We found this skull along the banks of the St. Croix River -- a great place to find strange bones washed up among the detritus.
This ancient fish lives most often in shallows, and attacks other fish by biting sideways with its long rows of wicked teeth. It possesses a swim bladder that can function as a lung, which means that it can breathe air -- if kept moist, they can survive out of water for a long time, and in oxygen-poor water that would suffocate other fish, the gar can survive by coming to the surface and breathing. Oh. Did we mention that they can grow to be over five feet long?
Pretty cool creature, isn't it?
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