A Fish Out Of Water!

January 29, 2023

Let Me Introduce You To The West African Lungfish!

Hello Blog! This is the first in a series of posts that will introduce you(and me) to the Protopterus annectens, more widely known as the West African Lungfish. This species is a prehistoric animal that belongs to the class Sarcopterygii, also known as lobe-finned fish. Sarcopterygii is traditionally a class of vertebrates that is made up of living and fossil coelacanths, lungfishes, and other related extinct fishes. The members of this class are identified by their lobed paired fins and two dorsal fins.

Source: Loury Cédric, Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Protopterus_annectens_-_dipneuste_africain_-_Aqua_Porte_Dor%C3%A9e_01.JPG

 

Some Background Info…And An Amazing Fun Fact!

Here is one fun fact I knew prior to writing this blog. Ladies and gentlemen, the West African Lungfish is able to breathe air! This species possesses two lungs, just like ours, and lives in waterways that tend to dry up quickly in warmer temperatures. When its environment dries up, it will find burrows of mud and secrete a thin layer of mucus over itself which will dry up and form a cocoon.The cocoon will have a short tunnel which will be used to get air. It is able to live in this cocoon for up to a year, and therefore can wait for its environment to be restored. In fact, even if there isn’t an issue with their environment, lungfish will still need to breathe the air above water periodically in order to survive, a common trait in many sea mammals.

 
Habitat:
Millions of years ago, lungfish could be found all over the world. Today, the six known species of lungfish are found in Africa, Australia, and South America. Specifically, the West African Lungfish can, as its name suggests, be found in West Africa. With even more specifity, Protopterus annectens is found in ,”large Sahelian basins, Comoé River, Bandama River and some basins of Sierra Leone and Guinea, upper Congo River, middle and lower Zambezi basin and all east coast rivers south to the Limpopo River, and Lake Rukwa (Fishbase, 2022).” These fish like to live in freshwater swamps, small rivers, and backwaters.
 
 
Second Fun Fact:
Unlike many other fish species, adult West African Lungfish have no natural predators. Larger fish and mammals may be predators of young lungfish, but the adults have no predators to fear. This may be due to their slow lifestyle, where these fish slow their metabolism down and lay at the bottom of their environments for months on end. In fact, West African Lungfish can go for three and a half years without eating anything.
 
 
Sources: 
 

African lungfish. Oregon Zoo. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://www.oregonzoo.org/discover/animals/african-lungfish

Association, A. L. (n.d.). A fish with a lung? meet granddad. American Lung Association. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://www.lung.org/blog/a-fish-with-a-lung-granddad

Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2022.FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication.
www.fishbase.org, ( 08/2022 )

Sarcopterygii. Visit the main page. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/SarcopterygiiWest African lungfish. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Animals and Plants. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/west-african-lungfish

 

 

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