| P number: | P550306 |
|---|---|
| Caption: | Dipterus, a fossil lungfish. |
| Description: | Lobe-finned fish first evolved during the Silurian. They had a bony skeleton and scales like a ray finned fish, but differed in the fins, which were long muscular lobes. It was the muscular lobed fins that evolved into the legs of the earliest amphibians (tetrapods). One of the characteristics of lobe-finned fish is that during Early Devonian times they developed a form of primitive lung and lungfish still survive in parts of Brazil, West Africa and eastern Australia. Dipterus is an example of a fossil lungfish. Dipterus was a lungfish that lived during Devonian times in Scotland, about 400 million years ago. It lived close to the river edge and used gills whilst in the water. However, during dry periods it would bury itself in the damp mud where it breathed using its lungs. It did not have teeth, but fan-shaped tooth plates, which remained relatively unchanged throughout the history of lungfish. Fish are cold-blooded vertebrates with a braincase, fins for swimming and gills to take oxygen from the water (although some also have lungs). They therefore differ from other aquatic creatures like invertebrate molluscs or crabs; amphibians and reptiles, which have lungs and limbs rather than gills and fins; and whales and dolphins which are warm-blooded mammals. Fish are the first vertebrates, having evolved during the early Cambrian over 500 million years ago. |
| Photographer: | Unknown |
| Copyright statement: | Unknown |
| Orientation: | Landscape |
| Size: | 508.02 KB; 1000 x 693 pixels; 85 x 59 mm (print at 300 DPI); 265 x 183 mm (screen at 96 DPI); |
| Average Rating: | Not yet rated |
| Categories: | Best of BGS Images/ Fossils |
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