What’s so special about the Australian lungfish?
The Queensland lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri, is the only now living member of the family Ceratodontidae and order Ceratodontiformes. Also known as Australian lungfish or Barramunda, Neoceratodus forsteri is native only to the Mary and Burnett river systems in south-eastern Queensland. It has however been introduced to several other Australian rivers south of this area during the past century. Fossil records of the lungfish group date back 380 million years to a period when the higher vertebrate classes were at the starting point of their development. Prehistoric fossils unearthed in New South Wales are almost identical to the now living Qeensland lungfish, indicating that this species hardly has evolved at all during the last 100 million years. Lungfishes flourished during the Devonian period (c. 413-365 million years ago) but only six species of freshwater lungfish remain today; one in Australia, one in South America, and four in Africa. The Queensland lungfish can survive for seve
