Odd fish snagged in Florida spring leaves people confused. Experts explain appearance

A “primitive” fish that is both familiar and alien was caught in central Florida, prompting marine biologists to consider what might have happened in the waters of Silver Glen Springs.

The creature looks a lot like a gar ... except the shape is all wrong.

Instead of being elongated and sleek, this one was “crooked” and beefy, according to the FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.

A photo of the oddity was posted July 2 on Facebook, along with an explanation.

“Our biologists captured this longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus) while conducting an electrofishing survey in Silver Glen Springs,” institute officials wrote.

“This fish likely got its interesting shape from a spinal injury at some point in its life. Still, the fish was 2.7 feet long and weighed over 10.6 (pounds).”

The revelation comes not long after a similarly deformed bull shark was pulled from the Indian River near Titusville. However, experts suspect a form of scoliosis made the shark squiggly-shaped.

Longnose gar typically have “torpedo-shaped bodies,” with needle-like teeth and thin snouts “nearly twice the length of their heads,” according to the Florida Museum of Natural History.

They can reach 6.5 feet in length, “making them formidable ambush predators in the slow moving rivers, bayous and reservoirs of (the) Eastern United States,” the museum says.

Silver Glen Springs is a perfect habitat for them, with a constant water temperature of about 72 degrees thanks to submerged vents belching about 65 million gallons of water a day, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports.

The spring is about a 70-mile drive north from Orlando.

This story was originally published July 2, 2024 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Odd fish snagged in Florida spring leaves people confused. Experts explain appearance."