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Rhipidistia includes Porolepiformes and Dipnoi. Extensive fossilization of lungfishes has contributed to many evolutionary studies of this group. Evolution of autostylic jaw suspension, in which the palatoquadrate bone fuses to the cranium, and the lymph pumping " lymph heart " (later lost in mammals and flying birds ), are unique to this group.
Lungfish are omnivorous, feeding on fish, insects, crustaceans, worms, mollusks, amphibians and plant matter. They have an intestinal spiral valve rather than a true stomach. [9] African and South American lungfish are capable of surviving seasonal drying out of their habitats by burrowing into mud and estivating throughout the
Porolepiformes is an order of prehistoric lobe-finned fish which lived during the Devonian period (about 416 to 359 million years ago). They are thought to represent the sister group to lungfish (class Dipnoi). [1] The group contains two families: Holoptychiidae and Porolepididae.
After an elaborate courtship, the lungfish spawn in pairs, depositing large adhesive eggs amongst aquatic plants. [9] They spawn from August until November, before the spring rains, in flowing streams that are at least a metre deep. [7] Eggs are most abundant during September and October. The stimulus for spawning is believed to be day length.
Sarcopterygii (/ ˌ s ɑːr k ɒ p t ə ˈ r ɪ dʒ i. aɪ /; from Ancient Greek σάρξ (sárx) 'flesh' and πτέρυξ (ptérux) 'wing, fin') — sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii (from Ancient Greek κροσσός (krossós) 'fringe') — is a clade (traditionally a class or subclass) of vertebrate animals which includes a group of bony fish commonly referred to as lobe ...
The South American lungfish is an extraordinary creature - in some sense, a living fossil. Inhabiting slow-moving and stagnant waters in Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, French Guiana ...
Furthermore, the African lungfish is commonly used for food consumption in many African regions. In Ugandan fish markets, African lungfish can frequently be found. According to some studies, Uganda caught between 15,000 and 22,000 tons of lungfish from 1976 to 1985, but this number decreased from 1985 to 1989.
All lungfish of the order can and often do estivate (except the spotted African lungfish, which can but rarely does so). [5] All members of the order are obligatory air-breathers; only the Australian lungfish has functioning gills when adult; members of the Lepidosirenidae have gills only when they are larvae. [ 5 ]