African Lungfish

Fascinating facts about the African Lungfish

• When a river dries up, the African lungfish doesn't migrate — it digs a mucus cocoon 60 centimetres deep and enters a state of suspended animation called estivation, where its heart rate drops to almost nothing and it breathes air through a tiny hole at the surface. It can survive like this for up to 4 years, waiting for the rains to return. Scientists studying their DNA have found they can literally press pause on ageing during estivation, then resume right where they left off.
• The African lungfish has two lungs and gills, but when the water vanishes, the gills become useless — so it switches entirely to gulping air at the surface, just like a human drowning in reverse. Its lungs are primitive compared to ours, yet they work well enough to keep the fish alive through droughts that would kill 99% of other freshwater species. This dual-breathing system is a living fossil glimpse into how fish first colonised land 375 million years ago.
• A lungfish's brain is the size of a grain of rice, yet it's a hunter that remembers where prey lives and returns to the same hunting grounds after years of dormancy. When water levels drop, it actively searches for deeper pools rather than waiting passively, showing problem-solving behaviour rarely seen in fish. Its cognitive map of the river survives hibernation — a phenomenon neuroscientists are only beginning to understand.
• The African lungfish has a heart with three chambers instead of the two-chamber pump most fish carry, and blood vessels that reroute oxygen-rich water away from the gills when it's breathing air and back through them when water returns. This anatomical flexibility lets it switch respiratory systems without missing a beat, a trick that took millions of years of evolution to perfect and no other living fish can match.
• Fossil records show lungfish have existed virtually unchanged for 100 million years, surviving the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs by doing what they do best — burying themselves in mud and waiting. Their stubborn body plan is so successful that they've outlasted countless extinction events and evolutionary revolutions, making them one of Earth's most resilient vertebrates and a window into how life persisted through planetary catastrophe.

At a glance

About the African Lungfish

In the murky depths of Africa's freshwater lakes and rivers, the lungfish glides effortlessly, its sleek, serpentine body undulating as it navigates the dense vegetation. With the ability to breathe air from the surface, this ancient creature can thrive in environments where others would perish, its remarkable lungs allowing it to survive out of water for extended periods. As it moves through the water, its large, lidless eyes seem to hold a primordial wisdom, a testament to its enduring presence in a world that has changed dramatically over millennia.

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