Atractosteus

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Superclassis/Classis: Actinopterygii
Classis/Subclassis: Actinopteri
Subclassis/Infraclassis: Neopterygii

Infraclassis: Holostei
Division: Ginglymodi
Ordo: Lepisosteiformes
Subordo: Lepisosteoidei
Superfamilia: Lepisosteoidea
Familia: Lepisosteidae
Genus: Atractosteus
Species: A. spatula – A. tristoechus – A. tropicus
Name

Atractosteus Rafinesque, 1820
References

Rafinesque, C.S. 1820. Ichthyologia Ohiensis [Part 8]. Western Review and Miscellaneous Magazine 3(3): 165–173. Reference page.

Links

Atractosteus – Taxon details on Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).

Atractosteus is a genus of gars in the family Lepisosteidae, with three species. The genus first appeared in the Campanian in the Late Cretaceous.
Systematics

Lepisosteidae

Atractosteus A. tropicus A. tristoechus A. spatula Lepisosteus L. oculatus L. platyrhincus L. osseus L. platostomus

Species
Extant species

Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
	Atractosteus spatula Lacépède, 1803	Alligator gar	Southern United States
	Atractosteus tristoechus Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801	Cuban gar	Western Cuba and the Isla de la Juventud
	Atractosteus tropicus T. N. Gill, 1863	Tropical gar	Southern Mexico to Costa Rica

Fossils

†Atractosteus africanus (Arambourg & Joleaud, 1943)[1]
†Atractosteus grandei (Brownstein & Lyson, 2022)[4]
†Atractosteus cuneatus (Cope 1884) non (Cope 1878)
†Atractosteus emmonsi Hay 1929
†Atractosteus falipoui (Cavin & Brito 2001)
†Atractosteus lapidosus Hay 1919
†Atractosteus messelensis Grande 2010
†Atractosteus occidentalis (Leidy 1856) non Wiley 1976
†Atractosteus simplex (Leidy 1873)

References

Cavin, Lionel; Martin, Michel; Valentin, Xavier (1996). "Occurrence of Atractosteus africanus (actinopterygii, lepisosteidae) in the early Campanien of Ventabren (Bouches-du-Rhône, France). Paleobiogeographical implications". Revue de Paléobiologie. 15 (1): 1–7.
Froese, R.; Pauly, D. (2017). "Lepisosteidae". FishBase version (02/2017). Retrieved 18 May 2017.
Van Der Laan, Richard; Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ronald (11 November 2014). "Family-group names of Recent fishes". Zootaxa. 3882 (1): 1–230. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3882.1.1. PMID 25543675.

Brownstein, Chase Doran; Lyson, Tyler R. (2022). "Giant gar from directly above the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary suggests healthy freshwater ecosystems existed within thousands of years of the asteroid impact". Biology Letters. 18 (6): 20220118. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2022.0118. PMC 9198771. PMID 35702983.

Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2011). Species of Atractosteus in FishBase. June 2011 version.