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The dipnoan buccal pump reconstructed in 3D and implications for air breathing in Devonian lungfishes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2016

A. M. Clement Open the ORCID record for A. M. Clement [Opens in a new window] ,
J. A. Long ,
P. Tafforeau  and
P. E. Ahlberg
A. M. Clement
Affiliation:
Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18A, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected].
J. A. Long
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia, Australia
P. Tafforeau
Affiliation:
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 avenue des Martyrs, 38043 Grenoble, France
P. E. Ahlberg
Affiliation:
Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18A, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

Lungfishes are known for, and indeed take their name from, their bimodal respiratory abilities. All three extant genera can use their lungs to extract oxygen from the atmosphere, although their reliance upon this capability differs among taxa. Lungs are considered primitive for the Osteichthyes, however the distinctive buccal pump mode of air gulping exhibited by extant lungfishes appears to be a specialization. It is associated with a number of derived skeletal characters (cranial ribs, long parasphenoid stalk, midline gap between palatal tooth plates) that first appeared during the Devonian. These have been described individually, but in no Devonian lungfish has their three-dimensional (3D) spatial relationship been reconstructed and analyzed. Here we present the 3D morphology of Rhinodipterus, a Mid-Late Devonian lungfish from Australia and Europe, based on synchrotron tomography and conventional microtomography scans.

Unlike less crownward contemporaneous lungfishes such as Griphognathus and Chirodipterus, Rhinodipterus has a full set of skeletal buccal pump components that can be directly compared to those of extant lungfishes, suggesting that it made more extensive use of air breathing than other Gogo or Bergisch Gladbach genera. This is interesting in relation to the environmental context as Gogo and Bergisch Gladbach are both marine, contrasting with the frequently hypoxic tropical to subtropical fresh water environments inhabited by modern lungfishes. The evolution of buccal pump-supported lung ventilation was evidently not necessarily associated with a transition to non-marine habitats.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , May 2016 , pp. 289 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 The Paleontological Society. All rights reserved 

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