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The
Diversity of The World of Life
Vertebrates
(Vertebrata)
Lungfish
(Dipnoi)
Representative
Lungfish
Biology
ENVIRONMENTS
Lungfish
live in rivers or in the muddy beds of often dried-up rivers, in Tropical
Australia, Africa, and South America.
DESCRIPTION
Lungfish are a type of lobe-finned
fish, although
with fewer fins overall than most fish (Lungfish are more at home crawling
through the mud than swimming through open water).
FEEDING HABITS
Lungfish
have crushing plates of teeth, with which they may feed on shellfish.
RESPIRATION
A
lungfish indeed has a pair of lungs, evolved from out-pouchings of the
pharynx (throat).
There
are not only a pair of external nostrils (opening to the outside, as in
typical fish, whose nostrils function only in the sense of smell) but also
a pair of internal nostrils (opening to the inside, in the roof of the
mouth).
Lungfish
may survive within a cocoon of mucous they secrete under dried mud, as
long as they keep a small air hole to the surface.
Vertebrates
(Vertebrata)
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