HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Angler Sebastian Benitez caught a rare hybrid of an alligator gar and a longnose gar while fishing the Trinity River, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said.
The female alligator gar and male longnose gar hybrid displays physical traits from both species, including an elongated, triangular snout that falls between the broad snout of an alligator gar and the narrow, needle-like snout of a longnose gar.
Texas has four native gar species: spotted, shortnose, longnose and alligator gar.
TPWD said gars have existed for more than 200 million years and that their separate species developed about 100 million years ago. Their slow evolutionary rate allows hybrids to occur, although they remain uncommon.
Another angler caught and released an alligator gar-longnose gar hybrid in the Trinity River in 2024. TPWD biologist Dan Daugherty told the Houston Chronicle at the time that hybrids account for roughly 1% to 2% of gar populations.
The two species’ distant evolutionary relationship makes the hybrid particularly unusual. According to IFLScience, the alligator gar-longnose gar pairing represents the oldest known parental split that has produced an identified animal hybrid.
TPWD also said gars have the lowest known genetic mutation rate among jawed vertebrates. Researchers associate the trait with the fish’s highly efficient DNA repair system.
The agency said studying these DNA repair mechanisms could provide insights relevant to cancer research.
