Lungfish

Lungfish, also known as dipnoans, are freshwater vertebrates belonging to the class Dipnoi. Lungfish are best known for their innovative respiratory system, including the ability to breathe air, and derived structures within Sarcopterygii, including the presence of lobed fins with a well-developed internal skeleton. Lungfish represent the closest living relatives of the tetrapods (which includes living amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals). The mouths of lungfish typically bear tooth plates, which are used to crush hard shelled organisms.

species of chordates

species of fish (Neoceratodus forsteri)

Ceratodontiformes is the only extant order of lungfish, containing the families Neoceratodontidae, Lepidosirenidae, and Protopteridae as well as many other extinct groups. Members of this group are the only lungfish known to have survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event. Although lungfish originated in marine environments, the Ceratodontiformes have been an exclusively freshwater group since the Carboniferous. This order was formerly considered the suborder Ceratodontoidei.

Neoceratodus is a genus of lungfish in the family Neoceratodontidae. The extant Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri) is the only surviving member of this genus, but it was formerly much more widespread, being distributed throughout Africa, Australia, and South America. Species were also much more diverse in body plan; for example, the Cretaceous species Neoceratodus africanus was a gigantic species that coexisted with Spinosaurus in what is now the Kem Kem Formation of Morocco. The earliest fossils from this genus are of Neoceratodus potkooroki from the mid Cretaceous (Albian-Cenomanian

Neoceratodontidae is a family of lungfish containing Neoceratodus (represented by the extant Australian lungfish) and the extinct Mioceratodus. It, Lepidosirenidae, and Protopteridae represent the only lungfish families still extant.

REDIRECT South American lungfish