African Lungfish

• GeneralIt survives drought wrapped in a cocoon of mucus under the mud, for as long as four years.
• fisiologíaIt can survive several years buried in dry mud inside a cocoon of mucus, in a dormant state called aestivation.
• It is an obligate air breather: it has two lungs and drowns if it cannot come up for air.
• When the water dries up it burrows into the mud and secretes mucus that within six or eight days becomes a dry, papery cocoon, with a single opening for the mouth connected to the surface by a narrow tube.
• Inside that cocoon it can spend years dormant without eating or drinking. In the wild it aestivates for seven or eight months, and one captive individual emerged from its cocoon after seven years.
• It switches metabolism when it aestivates: in water it excretes ammonia, and inside the cocoon it converts this into urea, far less toxic, so as not to poison itself.
• A 2024 study confirmed that the inner and outer layers of the cocoon are made up largely of living cells.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - mostly cartilaginous internal skeleton (lungfish)

Habitat and environment

Temporary pools and floodplains

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Protopterus annectens · Anatomia de Dipnoi

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.