Behold the South American lungfish (lepidosiren paradoxa). These eel-like fish can get to be about 4' long and inhabit the swamplands of the Amazon basin. They sure know how to survive, doing everything from breathing air, to digging holes in the mud during the dry season, and eating snails and algae and what not.
This is one of those cases where ugly and functional go hand in hand (or fin in fin). You can't expect much in terms of looks from a creature that has to eek out an existence in an equatorial swamp that dries out each year.
Thanks for the link, Teresa.
Photo source: Amazonian-Fish.co.uk
Aug 16, 2007
You Can't Expect Much
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4 comments:
The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago has one of these 4' long buggers. But i think he's 80 years old! How's that life span for a muck dweling slime-ball?
~Kit
That's pretty uncanny, I was just in the process preparing a talk on air-breathing fish with a heavy emphasis on lungfish when I saw this in my rss reader. They're among my most favoritest of all animals.
I had the pleasure of visiting the lungfish in Chicago this summer. 'Granddad' is actually an Australian Lungfish and isn't quite as hideous as the South Amercian variety featured here. Here is a link to a site about Granddad: http://www.sheddaquarium.org/australianlungfish.html
That Australian guy is...almost...cute.
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