The 'living fossil' fish has lungs

When an angler pull coelacanth from the sea in 1938, scientists stunned. Fish weighing scale with lobes are remnants of bygone era, where when dinosaurs still rule the earth. Scientists previously have the coelacanth fossils that living at the hundreds of millions of years ago, and until the day on which the coelacanth was found alive, a living fossil is thought to have become extinct along with the dinosaurs.

A coelacanth in the waters off South Africa. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/1KpMY2o)

Coelacanth survived studied by scientists for decades. We already know the characteristics strangely, such as the existence of a pair of fins in the chest, pelvic fins, fleshy like limbs, etc. But, there is one thing that the new unknown. These fish have lungs.

In a study published in Nature Communications today, scientists discovered that the modern coelacanth also have a structure that looks like the lungs, which is also owned by the previous fossils. Lungs appear when the fish is still embryonic, but the lungs stopped growing when the fish continues to grow into adulthood, making it difficult to be seen, unless you can access the high-powered X-Ray to see it.

The coelacanths vestigial lungs at different stages of development. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/1KpMY2o)

Scientists know that in the coelacanth fossil has a strange organ, but they thought that the organ no longer exists along the species that change from year to year. Although, coelacanths have lungs, it does not mean they breathe through the lungs. Scientists found that the lung does not function or the rest of the organ.

Scientists believe that the existence of such lungs could be indications of coelacanth ancestors may have lived in shallow water with a thin oxygen level. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | POPSCI]

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