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Lungfish are freshwater vertebrates belonging to the class Dipnoi. [1] Lungfish are best known for retaining ancestral characteristics within the Osteichthyes, including the ability to breathe air, and ancestral structures within Sarcopterygii, including the presence of lobed fins with a well-developed internal skeleton.
Lungfish breathe in using a buccal force-pump similar to that of amphibians. The contraction of smooth muscles in the walls of the lung results in exhalation. [28] The sound of the lungfish exhaling air at the surface prior to inhaling a fresh breath has been compared to that made by a small bellows. [9]
The west African lungfish also has the ability to breathe atmospheric air by rising to the water's surface and taking a gulp of air, which it must do every half an hour or so to survive. [10] While they do possess lungs, there is minimal oxygen exchange through them; the lungs are primarily used for atmospheric respiration. [9]
An Australian lungfish that has been at a California aquarium for over 80 years is now considered the oldest living aquarium fish. ... unlike most fish, the lungfish can breathe air without gills ...
Lungfish (Dipnoi): Six species have limb-like fins, and can breathe air.Some are obligate air breathers, meaning they will drown if not given access to breathe air. All but one species bury in the mud when the body of water they live in dries up, surviving up to two years until water returns.
The South American lungfish is an extraordinary creature - in some sense, a living fossil. ... While other fish rely upon gills to breathe, lungfish also possess a pair of lung-like organs. It ...
Obligate air breathers, such as the African lungfish, are obligated to breathe air periodically or they suffocate. Facultative air breathers, such as the catfish Hypostomus plecostomus, only breathe air if they need to and can otherwise rely on their gills for oxygen. Most air breathing fish are facultative air breathers that avoid the ...
The lungfish is the closest relative to the fish from which all four-limbed animals descended, making the information in its massive genetic code vital to understanding the last 400 million years ...