Mystery Animal in our lakes?

[lennysky]

My neighbor found this lower portion of a jaw of a 'mystery animal' at a shoreline of our local lake. It is almost 14" long and the skin resembles pattern of a pickerel. Care to comment? This is not a goof

[jimcnj]

Alligator jaw bone. New cold water sub-species?
They will give the cormorants a run for their money!

[Jedhead]

That size, pike or musky but who knows these days, could be a well fed alligator gar,snakehead or some exotic snake.!

[Jigman13]

Def looks reptilian in nature. Ask F&G... Mark b might be able to help...

People buy gators and the like as pets bc it seems like a good idea at the time... then they grow and become expensive and unsafe, resulting in said people releasing them into our lakes and ponds. They don't last in our four season climate, esp with the winters we've been having...

[lennysky]

Definitely a possibility. Definitely of the size that would become a handful at home. One thing, I'm on my lake 24/7 and it's not large. Would have seen it swimming.

[lennysky]

I googled alligators in NJ and surprisingly found numerous live and dead discoveries in our local lakes. More recently in Wayne, NJ

[bunker dunker]

gator,fish don't have raised jaw.

[Walleyed]

It's a gator jaw.

http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/tderting/anatomyatlas/settle2.jpg

[JDTuna]

Definitely looks like the lower jaw of an alligator. However, that doesn't mean one was prowling that lake. Many shops down south sell preserved gator heads as novelties, and it could have just been discarded.

[lennysky]

Does not appear that the skin was treated to preserve it. Plus, it's a bit large for a souvenir at 14". I have a feeling someone released it and it lived in a culvert until it got cold. Then it died and was washed down with a spring thaw.

[gwl2oneida]

Could have been a cayman. Still legal to own inany states. I was in the pet trade for 10 yrs. Some people have some pretty crazy pets. I've seen, monkeys,wallabys,venomous snakes and lots other crazy stuff.

[lennysky]

Cayman was my first guess based on skin/color pattern. But who knows?