Description
The gars, or garpikes, are members of the Lepisosteiformes (or Semionotiformes), an ancient order of "primitive" ray-finned fish. Fossil gars are found in Europe, South America, and North America, indicating that in times past these fish had a wider distribution than they do today. Gars are considered to be a remnant of a group of rather primitive bony fish that flourished in the Mesozoic, and are most closely related to the bowfin, another archaic fish now found only in North America.
