Lungfish

High school (ages 12+)
Animals & Nature

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/lungfish

1. What is the scientific name?
2. What makes lungfish able to breathe air?
3. Why do some lungfish need to surface for air while others can stay underwater?

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the scientific name?Order Dipnoi
2. What makes lungfish able to breathe air?Lungfish have a special dual breathing system: they use their gills like other fish, and they also have one or two lungs that come from their swim bladder, letting them gulp air from the surface.
3. Why do some lungfish need to surface for air while others can stay underwater?The African and South American lungfish must surface regularly to breathe air, so they are called obligate air‑breathers. The Australian lungfish can stay on its gills most of the time but can breathe air when it needs to.

Sarcopterygii: A class of bony fishes characterized by paired, lobe-like fins, including the ancestors of tetrapods.
Obligate Air-Breather: An organism that requires atmospheric air for respiration and cannot survive solely on dissolved oxygen.
Phylogenetic Significance: The importance of an organism or group of organisms in understanding evolutionary relationships and history.