Lepisosteidae

longnose gar

Lepisosteus osseus

Spiral valve within intestine

• Tropical
• Regional distribution
• Atlantic Ocean
• Central America and the Caribbean
• North America
• Elongated
• Large
• Tropical fish

The longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus), also known as longnose garpike or 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. References are made to gars being a primitive group of bony fish because they have retained some primitive features, such as a spiral valve intestine, but they are not primitive in the sense of not being fully developed.