Sebastian Benitez couldn’t believe his recent catch at Trinity River near Kaufman.
He called the creature a “true river monster.”
Turns out, the North Texas teen wrangled in a gar, a family of ancient fish that existed alongside dinosaurs millions of years ago. This one was unique though, as the 42” catch was a cross between a female alligator gar and a male longnose gar.
Dan Daughtery, Science Program Director for the Inland Fisheries Division and Director of the Heart of the Hills Fisheries Science Center at TPWD, says that Benitez’s catch is “something to be proud of.”
He told NBC DFW, “It's rare. It's not unheard of, but it is rare. In all the sampling we have done in multiple systems throughout Texas, I would put the rarity at probably one in 100 to one in 200 fish.”
Benitez is proud of his first prehistoric hybrid catch, saying that it’s “a massive deal for both local sports and evolutionary science.”
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