Which freshwater fish is the only native fish of Australia’s genus Neoceratodus?

The Australian lungfish is the only living species in the genus Neoceratodus.

Its scientific name is Neoceratodus forsteri, and it is native to the Mary and Burnett river systems in Queensland. Unlike African and South American lungfish, it usually breathes with a single lung and must regularly rise to the surface for air.

The species is often described as a living fossil because its lineage preserves many ancient lungfish characteristics. Fossils of close relatives show that lungfish were once much more widespread than they are today.

Australian lungfish are slow-growing and can live for many decades. They are protected because dams, altered river flows, habitat disturbance, and collection can affect their limited natural range. The species is also culturally and scientifically important as one of the closest living relatives of the lineage that gave rise to land vertebrates.