Gars have been around since the jurassic. They live in areas that may be not a lot of other more conventionally whad say erspiring fish can survive because they actually breathe air. Gars used to be a much more diverse group than they are now. Right now we have seven extant species that are all found within north America, om central america and cuba. There used to be many more species, and they were found in north American,. africa, india, europe, basily world wideed o pantia a distribution. And yet, things like erbreathing helped them survive. For this longe. They kind of found a body plan