Review
The earth is a ever-changing world, with mountains and rivers, rivers, lakes and seas, deserts and Gobi, and every corner is pregnant with completely different life, which has great power and can adapt to changes in the environment.
No matter what kind of variables, in the end, they can be wonderfully dissolved by these guys and become part of their survival, so we can see such a rich biodiversity and witness the miracle of life itself, and the African lungfish we are going to introduce today is also a typical case, they can hide deep underground without eating or drinking for several years, but unfortunately they have not escaped human excavation.
African lungfish
Most people should be the first time to hear about the African lungfish, see the name will definitely ask two questions, the first is that there are so few african water and there are fish? The second is that fish don't breathe with gills, why should they be called lungfish?
First to answer the first question, of course, there are fish in Africa, don't forget, there are the world's longest rivers, there are many large lakes, even in the hot grasslands, there will be seasonal waters, so it is not a strange thing to have fish, and although the African lungfish is called by this name, it is not only in Africa, but there are many in the Americas and Australia.
Looking at the second question, most of the world's fish do breathe with gills, and the fish we are more familiar with breathing with lungs are also whales, which are related to their evolution, so why do African lungfish also breathe with lungs?
In fact, they can not only breathe with the lungs, the special feature of the African lungfish is that it can use both lungs and gills, that is, it has two sets of respiratory systems, which is rare in nature, so that the African lungfish can come and go in two environments, in the environment with water, they use gills, to the lack of water or even water, it is not impossible to obtain oxygen, as long as it switches to the mode of lung breathing.
Some people doubt that this function is not powerful enough, for example, if you breathe with your lungs, you may not be able to persist for too long, after all, fish are still fish, and breathing with gills seems to be the most convenient, but it turns out that the lungs of African lungfish, that is, the structure of the swim bladder, are very powerful, even if they are used like this, there is no problem.
The researchers specifically compared their swim bladders with human lungs, and in addition to the differences in size and structure, the function is basically not bad at all. So the African lungfish can live in Africa, in fact, it is also due to this.
Especially in areas with clear rainy seasons in the dry season, the rainy season is fine, the amount of water is abundant, the food is abundant, and the fish can survive normally, but once the drip water is missing in the dry season, many seasonal rivers and lakes will disappear on the surface, and most of the aquatic organisms have only one dead end, but there is no impact on the African lungfish, they can continue to take in oxygen as long as they switch the respiratory system.
Spend a long dry season
Of course, this is not enough, we know that fish have a protective mucus on their bodies, if evaporated dry, it is very dangerous for them, the African lungfish is no exception, so although it has no problem breathing, but must find a way to protect the moisture on its body, the method they choose is to bury themselves in the mud, except for a hole for their own breathing, no place can be exposed.
But the water in the silt will also be quickly steamed dry, at which time the lungfish will secrete a waterproof layer to avoid being hurt by the high temperature, such a state will last for at least half a year, equivalent to a summer sleep, before the rainy season they will not have any activity.
After all, it is still an aquatic animal, there is no part of the body that can walk, and it can also hide well from its natural enemies, avoid being targeted by the other party at the most vulnerable time, and when the riverbed begins to accumulate water again, the lungfish will come out again to feed.
We know that some hibernating or summer sleeping animals generally survive a long month by eating in advance, and lungfish can certainly do this, but this is not enough for them, because they insist on not just a quarter, half a year or even longer, even if they are inactive, low metabolism, or need a certain amount of energy supplementation.
Lungfish store fat in the way, before the arrival of the dry season, they will try to store enough fat for them to metabolize for half a year, so that while sleeping in summer, even if they do not eat, they can support the most basic life activities.
According to the experiments of biologists, African lungfish can persist for up to 5 years in the absence of water and food, this vitality is very amazing, at least in the current level of cognition, the viability of African lungfish is among the best, so there are many new topics emerging, hoping to get some application inspiration from it, which can be used in various operation scenarios.
Of course, human cognition of African lungfish did not begin with modern research, people living in Africa have long discovered this unique creature, for them, it is like a ripe fruit falling to the ground, it is simply a gift of nature.
So when the dry season comes, digging lungfish into the riverbed is the most important thing for the locals, especially in those areas with backward productivity, there is no crop and no aquaculture, direct access from nature is the only way, this excavation coupled with more and more serious environmental pollution, so that the survival of African lungfish once faced a serious threat.
epilogue
From a species point of view, lungfish are a very unique existence, if they disappear from the earth, then there is only one thing that is reflected, that is, our ecology has been destroyed, so conservation actions must also be put on the agenda as soon as possible.