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All lungfish demonstrate an uninterrupted cartilaginous notochord and an extensively developed palatal dentition. Basal ("primitive") lungfish groups may retain marginal teeth and an ossified braincase, but derived lungfish groups, including all modern species, show a significant reduction in the marginal bones and a cartilaginous braincase.
Ceratodontiformes is the only extant order of lungfish, containing the families Neoceratodontidae, Lepidosirenidae, and Protopteridae as well as many other extinct groups. Members of this group are the only lungfish known to have survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event .
The lungfish is tolerant of cold, but prefers waters with temperatures in the range 15–25 °C (59–77 °F). [15] The Australian lungfish cannot survive complete desiccation of its habitat, but it can live out of water for several days if the surface of its skin is constantly moist.
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 ...
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 ...
The lungfish caecum is homologous (due to common descent) with the caecum present in most amniotes (tetrapod vertebrates that include all mammals, reptiles, and birds). [32] In most herbivores the caecum receives partially digested food from the small intestine, and serves as a fermentation chamber to break down cellulose (such as grass or ...
The lungfish heart has adaptations that partially separate the flow of blood into its pulmonary and systemic circuits. The atrium is partially divided, so that the left side receives oxygenated blood and the right side receives deoxygenated blood from the other tissues.
The Gnathorhizidae are an extinct family of lungfish that lived from the late Carboniferous until the middle Triassic.Gnathorhizid fossils have been found in North America, Madagascar, Australia, and possibly Eastern Europe and South Africa.