Recently, a man named Brent Crawford reeled in an Alligator Gar from Lake Corpus Christi. Crawford said the fish tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds, but the exact weight is unknown. Using a tape measurer, though, Crawford discovered that the gar measured 98 inches from snout to tail. Put another way, the fish was 8-foot 2 inches long, which beat the overall state record at the time by eight inches. You can read the full story of the dramatic capture here.
Alligator gars have been around for 100 million years, according to Cracked, and they typically reside "all over the Southern U.S., in rivers along the Gulf Coast." The website describes these creatures as having "double rows of sharp teeth" along with "pointed scales...big enough to be used as arrowheads, and hard enough that they cause sparks when struck with an axe."
That's not the only sea monster out there, either. Here are some others to be aware of.
Frilled Shark
If you thought Jaws was scary, you haven't seen anything yet. This fish, which has been on the Earth for 95 million years, resembles "a dragon that was bitten by an eel that was also a zombie for some reason." With more than 300, three-pronged teeth and the ability to swallow something that's equal to 1.5 times their length, these animals are not to be messed with. Though they generally stay in deep ocean water, they swim all over the world.
Giant River Stingray
Sure, some people fear stingrays, but nearly everyone will be afraid of the Giant River Stingray, which can be found in the murky river waters of the southern hemosphere. They have been found in Australia, New Guinea, Borneo, and Thailand. This animal can reach lengths of 16 feet, and the barbed, poisonous stinger on its end can pierce through bone. Perhaps they should be included in Australia's new marketing campaign.
Triops
This three-eyed shellfish has been around for 200 million years. That makes sense, though, when you consider that it lays indestructable eggs with the ability to go into suspended animation until the conditions are optimal for hatching. Something tells us, though, that they don't go nearly as well with cocktail sauce as shrimp do.
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