Did you know that there is a fish that can bury itself in the ground for 5 years without dying?
On the African continent, there is such a fish, they sleep in the underground mud for 5 years without dying, known as the real "wilderness survival master". In the end, the lungs evolved and "walked" to the shore, which is not uninspiring, this fish is the African lungfish.
But obviously the lungfish has been so "self-motivated", but it is still difficult to escape the fate of endangerment, what is going on?
When it comes to the history of lungfish, we can go back 400 million years. Yes, they appeared earlier than dinosaurs, and it can even be said that they witnessed the birth and elimination of the dinosaur family, and are veritable "historical observers". The long history has given lungfish room for evolution, they from the initial marine fish, gradually into the freshwater environment, and finally "walked" ashore.
The biggest feature of African lungfish is that they have long lungs and can burrow into the mud during dry water to sleep in the summer.
More precisely, the organ they use to breathe outside the water is the swim bladder. It's just that their swim bladders have a special structure, with many small air bags, which are very similar to the lungs of land animals, and also have the function of lungs, so this creature will be called lungfish.
Even in the lungfish family, African lungfish are quite special because they are able to achieve dormancy at the cellular level.
Whenever the dry season in Africa is approaching, these lungfish burrow into the depths of the silt to create a "shelter" that can include their bodies.
Because their skin can secrete a waterproof layer that prevents water loss, the body's metabolism will also be reduced to about 1/60 of the original during sleep. So they reserve enough "nutrients" to last long enough to survive the dry season in Africa for about 8 months.
Usually, lungfish can re-emerge whenever the rainy season comes, but if they dormant where there is no river flowing through them, they will not be awakened.
According to scientists' research, African lungfish can be buried deep underground for about 3-5 years, and when the reserved nutrients are exhausted, they can even use their muscles and fats as "nutrients" to continue to be used for their sleep.
I have to say that nature is really magical, and it can carve out such a strange creature as lungfish.
On the one hand, they are survivors in harsh environments, and in order to survive the long dry season, they have to give up the dignity of fish and evolve two sets of respiratory systems on land and water. On the other hand, the lungfish has a mouth of large plate teeth, which can easily crush the carapace of underwater creatures, and is a veritable "predator".
However, every predator can not escape the fate of predation, and the African lungfish is no exception, but they face more peculiar opponents.
Presumably, most people have never seen such a scene: the African people who have suffered from a long drought and cannot get water from the river have dug up the riverbed and finally dug out a few African lungfish from the mud. They lifted the lungfish up and twisted it hard against their mouths, and the water stored by the African lungfish flowed into the mouth of the human, and the Africans who absorbed the water directly threw the lungfish casually.
These images are very common in Africa, but the reality is far more tragic than everyone thinks. Because the African lungfish itself contains a lot of protein, although its taste is not satisfactory, it is often taken home by hungry Africans to make a hearty dinner.
Hearing this, many friends may feel strange, doesn't it mean that "lungfish are scarlet and quite similar to salmon"? Why do we say here that the taste of African lungfish is not satisfactory?
In fact, many friends have walked into a misunderstanding here, and everyone has the impression that the lungfish that tastes similar to salmon is not African lungfish, but Australian lungfish.
Although it is said that Australian lungfish and African lungfish belong to the same bony fish and subclass of flesh fins, due to the different genera of the two families, it can be said that they are completely different in habits and flesh quality. Australian lungfish are mainly distributed in southern Australia, and they are older and more "persistent" than African lungfish.
It is said that in the past 1 million years, they have not changed anything, and naturally they have not evolved the ability to "survive ashore". Because it is a typical "fish in the water", from the meat quality point of view, it is naturally far more tender and delicious than the African lungfish.
At the same time, it should also be mentioned that the Australian lungfish is a species that has long been protected by law in Australia and cannot be exported privately, so the Australian lungfish has been given preferential treatment to some extent. As for the African lungfish, it is different, as long as you want to eat, and can reach Africa, you can carry a shovel to dig casually, and you can bring some back as a "specialty" to send to your friends.
What we said above is naturally a joke, but it also objectively reflects the poor survival of African lungfish.
It is difficult for wild animals to dig out potential lungfish under the dry riverbed, but humans can do it, so humans have gradually become the "natural enemies" of this creature. Especially after the african people gradually developed their fisheries, the living conditions of lungfish have become more difficult, and in the past few decades, the number of African lungfish has taken a sharp turn for the worse and has gradually moved closer to the endangered level.
It is becoming clear that the overfishing of African lungfish is already having serious consequences, so that African lungfish are now on the conservation list.
But even so, can the situation of African lungfish really be effectively improved? In Africa's harsh living environment, the survival of the local population is not basically guaranteed, and many people die of hunger. Therefore, it is still difficult to solve the problem of over-killing lungfish.