Teaser...

[E_americanus]

Richard/Phil - yeah, i think that one is strausi (as Richard said), there are very very few M. kelleri as far as i know, and the pics are quite distinctive (in the main article covering that fish) showing a very very short snout.

Ricky - yeah, i noticed that right off the bat...actually, we noticed a few things about it pretty quickly after landing it...definitely looks quite different from the pet store fish, MUCH nicer colors and a longer snout. we're looking at snouts as part of the project and it's been quite interesting so far. regardless, the wild spotteds blow away most of the gars we keep in captivity in terms of their amazing colors/patterns--
--solomon

 

[demjor19]

very very cool solomon!

that first one has a pretty long snout for a spotted, right? or is it just my ignorance?

that's exactly what i thought on just about every wild spotted gar solomon has shown. is a slightly longer snout typical in wild specimens?

 

[Oddball]

Richard/Phil - yeah, i think that one is strausi (as Richard said), there are very very few M. kelleri as far as i know, and the pics are quite distinctive (in the main article covering that fish) showing a very very short snout.

Yeah, it's a strausi. Just wanted to get you to skip a heartbeat. The other is un-ID'd Atractostid from the Santana Formation of Ceara, Brazil.

 

[demjor19]

Yeah, it's a strausi. Just wanted to get you to skip a heartbeat. The other is un-ID'd Atractostid from the Santana Formation of Ceara, Brazil.

Awesome fossils Phil! I 'm envious!

 

[E_americanus]

that's exactly what i thought on just about every wild spotted gar solomon has shown. is a slightly longer snout typical in wild specimens?

we've been noticing longer snouts, yes; and this seems to match up with the field data that is available on the species as a whole (even though hardly anything has been done with them locally).

initial findings suggest that this (in the wild) is where more of the differences between spotteds and Floridas are (relatively) more evident. compared to the Floridas i have fished down south, these spotted gars definitely have longer snouts, but it's still pretty variable even within the populations we're sampling. we've got some experiments set to begin in the near future which will also look into this aspect of morphology among other things--
--solomon

 

[CTU2fan]

I'm guessing the longer snout and brighter colors are caused by something in the wild diet? Like you see in wild cichlids and their enlarged lips?

Very cool gar fossils though, awesome.