Alligator gar both sucks and chomps to catch its prey, new study finds
Scientists had assumed the alligator gar catches its prey simply by slamming its powerful, tooth-y jaws shut. But according to a new study posted to the pre-print site bioRxiv, the fish also creates a fast, powerful suction force to suck prey into its jaws by moving the bones in its skull and shoulder. The paper is currently undergoing peer review for the Journal of Morphology.
Alligator gar are the largest species in the gar family of freshwater fish, and they can grow as large as 10 feet and 300 pounds. They are often dubbed "living fossils" because their earliest ancestors in the fossil record date back over one hundred million years to the Early Cretaceous period. Once considered a "trash fish," they are primarily found in the southern US (Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas) along the Gulf of Mexico.
They get their colloquial name from the fact that they share a broad snout and long teeth with the American alligator-most other gar have long slender snouts. Because of this, it was assumed that the alligator gar used a similar lateral snap of the jaw for feeding, but according to lead author Justin Lemberg of the University of Chicago, the jaws of the alligator gar have a lot more joints, and hence greater mobility, than their reptile namesakes.
Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments