Gar Fish Bones and Scales

When the Jamestown settlers first encountered gar, they might have asked, “Why the long face?” Nowadays, archaeologists at Jamestown just ask, “Why are there so many scales?!”

One of the most common faunal finds at Jamestown are gar (Lepisosteus spp.) scales. Gar are armored fish with a distinctly long face and body. Their armor is made of hard, rhomboidal scales with a glassy finish, and the scale colors range from beige to green to brown. These scales cover the gar’s body and protect against predators like alligators, birds, snakes, and larger fish. Their distinct shape, color, and shine makes gar scales easy for archaeologists to identify. This is handy because they are found very often, particularly when water screening methods are used on site. Other gar bones, like their vertebrae and jaws, are also very distinct. Most fish vertebrae are concave on both sides; gar, however, have one convex side and one concave side. Their jaws are long, slender, and filled with pointed teeth to catch prey like crabs and smaller fish.

John Smith mentions the “Gar-fish” when describing the diversity of fish in the region, writing, “…some of them yet knowne to the Americans, as the Purgoose, the Cavallo, the Gar-fish, Flying-fish and Morerayes” in his 1624 book The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles. Before this publication, William Strachey wrote, “There is the Gar-fish, some of which are a yard long,” in his 1612 manuscript The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia. A separate species of needlefish, called garfish, are native to the waters surrounding the UK and Ireland, look like smaller versions of the gar found in the region. This may be why the colonists were familiar with these strange swimmers!

When the colonists landed in Virginia, gar became an important food source, especially during periods like the Starving Time. Various Indigenous tribes used gar as both a food source and a tool, with some tribes using gar scales for arrowheads. If you ever want to try gar, don’t try gar caviar — unlike other edible fish eggs, like those from certain sturgeon species and salmon, gar eggs are highly toxic to humans!

Gar occupy both fresh and brackish bodies of water throughout the east coast, with longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus) still occupying the James River. They are also commonly seen in aquariums throughout the country.

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