The gilled lungfish (''Protopterus amphibius''), also known as the East African lungfish, is a species of

African lungfish ''Protopterus'' is the genus of four species of lungfish found in Africa. ''Protopterus'' is considered the sole genus in the family Protopteridae, which is grouped with '' Lepidosiren'' in the order Lepidosireniformes. Taxonomy The earlies ...

. It is found in the swamps and flood plains of East Africa, and has been positively identified in

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

and

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

. Records from

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

require confirmation and may be the result of introductions.

Description

''Protopterus amphibius'' generally only reaches a length of , making it the smallest

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Exta ...

lungfish.Primitive Fishes.com
(Retrieved Feb. 19, 2010.) This lungfish is uniform blue or slate grey in colour. It has small or inconspicuous black spots and a pale grey belly. Like all

it has two lungs and is an obligate air-breather. Also, like all other African lungfish, it is able to burrow and form a mucous cocoon for protection in a process known as

estivation Aestivation ( (summer); also spelled estivation in American English) is a state of animal dormancy, similar to hibernation, although taking place in the summer rather than the winter. Aestivation is characterized by inactivity and a lowered me ...

Habitat

The gilled lungfish is a primarily

demersal The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer o ...

fish, living largely within the riverbeds of the

Zambezi River The Zambezi (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than half of t ...

system of East Africa. It also inhabits similar areas in the wetlands of the region.

Conservation

The gilled lungfish is listed as Least Concern, partially because reported numbers are high and partially because of the lack of data. It is eaten for food by some natives of the area however the numbers lost to this practice are very small. More dangerous threats are the damming of the Zambezi, which will reduce the size of the delta in which the fish live, and pollution in areas that the fish inhabit as well as encroachment of

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s for agriculture that reduces the available habitat.

References

LungFish.info
* Gosse, J.-P. 1984 Protopteridae. p. 8-17. In J. Daget, J.-P. Gosse and D.F.E. Thys van den Audenaerde (eds.) Check-list of the freshwater fishes of Africa (CLOFFA). Volume I. ORSTOM, Paris and MRAC, Tervuren. 410 p. (Ref. 3498) * Nelson, J. S. 2006. Fishes of the World, 4th edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. . * Rosen, D. E., P. I. Forey, B. G. Gardiner, and C. Patterson. 1981. Lungfishes, tetrapods, paleontology, and plesiomorphy. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 167(4): 159-276. * Schultze, H. P., and J. Chorn. 1997. The Permo-Carboniferous genus Sagenodus and the beginning of modern lungfish. Contributions to Zoology 61(7): 9-70. {{Taxonbar, from=Q2492821

gilled lungfish The gilled lungfish (''Protopterus amphibius''), also known as the East African lungfish, is a species of African lungfish. It is found in the swamps and flood plains of East Africa, and has been positively identified in Kenya, Somalia and Mozam ...

Fauna of East Africa Least concern biota of Africa