Alligator Gar
(Atractosteus spatula)

Found in the rivers and coastal waters of the southeastern United States and Mexico, the Alligator Gar is a prehistoric-looking freshwater giant. It can grow to nearly 3 metres in length and is covered in interlocking, diamond-shaped scales so hard they were historically used by Native Americans as arrowheads.

It is also one of the few freshwater fish capable of breathing air directly, surfacing periodically to gulp oxygen through a primitive lung-like swim bladder!