San Francisco Part II (non-caudates)

[jennifer]

These were some of the non-caudates at the California Academy of Sciences.

I didn't get the names of these, but both of these fish amazed me. I'm amazed that anyone could look at these and NOT believe that amphibians evolved from fish.

(Message edited by jennewt on November 12, 2005)

 

[alan]

Well it's a lungfish, not sure which species.

http://www.neosys.ne.jp/neo/english/HG01.html

 

[garrison]

Great pictures, Seems like an eventful trip!

I want to say the top one is the Australian lungfish group and the bottom is an African species. Big beautiful creatures, scientists once thought that amphibians evolved from these creatures, it makes sense, until they found some fossils, and some lobe finned fishes

(Message edited by gar4016 on November 12, 2005)

 

[leonardo]

beautiful pictures Jen!
the last one is probably a Protopterus, maybe Protopterus annectens...

 

[ian]

no, the top one I don't think is a lungfish.
I saw from a David Attenborough documentary mentioning the theory of evolution. In the part talking about how amphibians are evolved, he mentioned about three fishes. The top fish, which I am too lazy to play all the DVD to find the name(I think from Africa), lungfish, and
mudskipper.

 

[terry]

Ian Are you talking about Life On Earth ?
Then I know what you think the fish may be. The fishes they showed in that chapter "Conquest of the Land" is Polypterus ( the fish which gulps air) The lung fish and the mudskipper. The Coelacanth was also shown as the fish with appendages which resemble the first legs. Latimeria chalumnae and Latimeria menadoensis are the living fossils.

The lung fish was depicted as the candidate with a simple lung. Eustenopteron was the final example shown with the combined features of primitive legs and the ability to breath air.

The picture above is however a lungfish. I think you are confusing it with Polypterus or Eustenopteron (which is extinct) because the fish depicted above is NOT a coelecanth or polypterus. Lung fishes called Epiceratodus of Australia have more scales than the african lungfish.

(Message edited by terryschild on November 12, 2005)

 

[ian]

Yup... I see, thanks for letting me know. They do look pretty similar to me. Especially their pictures are pretty rare to see. Thanks

 

[carly]

What's that thing poking out of the sand?

 

[garrison]

I'd guess some species of softshell turtle? They're a little sensitive about their bodies

 

[micha]

The thing poking out of the sand is probably a florida softshell turtle(Apalone ferox).

(Message edited by cyanurus on November 15, 2005)

 

[josh]

lol the picture of the soft shell sticking his head out of the sand looks weird. The snapping turtle reminds me when me and my cousins found tons of snapping turtles when my family took a really long walk near a huge river and tons of ponds in missasaga.
Jen you're right about the fish !