Marbled lungfish
The marbled lungfish (Protopterus aethiopicus) is a lungfish of the family Protopteridae. Also known as the leopard lungfish, it is found in Eastern and Central Africa, as well as the Nile region. At 133 billion base pairs, it has the largest known genome of any animal and one of the largest of any organism, along with the flowering plant Paris japonica and the protist Polychaos dubium at 150 billion and 670 billion, respectively.
| Marbled lungfish Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| Close-up of head (above), swimming with head at top and back turned towards camera (below) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Sarcopterygii |
| Class: | Dipnoi |
| Order: | Ceratodontiformes |
| Family: | Protopteridae |
| Genus: | Protopterus |
| Species: | P. aethiopicus |
| Binomial name | |
| Protopterus aethiopicus Heckel, 1851 | |
| Subspecies | |
| Synonyms | |
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The marbled lungfish is caught in large numbers throughout much of its range, including several hundred metric tonnes per year in Mwanza Region's Mwanza Gulf of Lake Victoria alone. It is mostly a food fish, although this varies depending on the exact community, with some recognizing it as a delicacy and others strongly disliking its taste or considering it as a taboo to eat it. In some regions, parts of this fish are used as traditional medicine.