In two separate studies, researchers have re-examined fossil material from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation in Western Australia and described a new lungfish species from 410 million-year-old rocks in Yunnan, South China, providing new insights into how early lobe-finned fishes diversified around the world.
At Flinders University, palaeontologists have revisited a damaged and enigmatic lungfish specimen from the fossil-rich Gogo site in Western Australia's far north, part of an ancient Devonian reef sometimes described as Australia's first "Great Barrier Reef."
Using high-resolution CT scanning and computed tomography, the team produced detailed new digital images of the external and internal structure of the cranium, allowing them to reconstruct the complex brain cavity of this poorly preserved lungfish specimen.
Lead author Dr Alice Clement from the Flinders University Palaeontology Lab said the unusual fossil had long puzzled researchers, with its first description in 2010 suggesting it might represent a completely new type of fish not previously seen in science.
She explained that the new scans revealed that earlier impressions of the specimen were likely interpreted upside down and back to front, underscoring how advanced imaging technologies can overturn long-held assumptions about fragmentary fossils.
Coauthor Hannah Thiele, working with multiple museums and facilities including the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, used the advanced imaging data to compare the best-preserved inner ear region of the fossil with other lungfishes from Gogo.
This comparison adds an extra data point to the already diverse collection of lungfish and early vertebrate species known from the Gogo Formation, helping clarify patterns of anatomy and variation within this ancient group.
The findings contribute to a broader picture of lungfish evolution in Gondwana and beyond, illustrating how regional fossil assemblages can inform global questions about the origins of vertebrates with limbs.
In a parallel study published in the journal Current Biology, Flinders researcher Dr Brian Choo and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have described a new lungfish species from South China named Paleolophus yunnanensis, meaning "old crest from Yunnan."
The species is based on an exceptionally well-preserved skull from rocks deposited 410 million years ago, offering what the authors describe as an unprecedented look at a lungfish from a critical interval between the earliest known members of the group and their later Devonian radiation.
Dr Choo said Paleolophus captures a time when lungfishes were beginning to develop the distinctive feeding adaptations that would characterise the group for the remainder of the Devonian and persist into living species.
He noted that lungfishes represent an extremely ancient lineage, including the still living Australian lungfish from Queensland, which has long attracted scientific interest because of its close relationship to tetrapods, or backboned animals with limbs, including humans.
The new Yunnan skull provides major insights into the rapid evolutionary diversification of lungfishes between the early, middle and late Devonian, highlighting how quickly key anatomical innovations emerged in the group.
According to the researchers, Paleolophus shows both shared and divergent features when compared with the earliest and most primitive lungfish Diabolepis from southern China, as well as with taxa such as Uranolophus from Wyoming in the United States and Australia's Dipnorhynchus.
By mapping these similarities and differences across multiple early lungfish lineages, the team is refining the evolutionary relationships within the group and clarifying how anatomical traits were assembled through time.
The new article, "A new fossil fish sheds light on the rapid evolution of early lungfishes" (2025) by Tuo Qiao, Xindong Cui, Wenjin Zhao, Chengxi Lu, Maokun Li, Jing Lu, Brian Choo and Min Zhu, has been published in Current Biology (Cell Press) with DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.11.032.
The Gogo Formation study, "Deciphering Cainocara enigma from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation, Australia" (2025) by Hannah S Thiele, John A Long, Joseph J Bevitt and Alice M Clement, appears in the Canadian Journal of Zoology (Canadian Science Publishing) with DOI: 10.1139/cjz-2025-0109.
The Chinese lungfish research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP 220100825, while the Gogo study received funding from the Australian Research Council and was undertaken with the permission and support of the Gooniyandi community, who provided access to land, fossils and cultural knowledge.
Illustrations and photographs supplied by Flinders University include artwork of Paleolophus, a lungfish that inhabited South Chinese seas 410 million years ago, a 3D-printed skull of the Gogo lungfish Chirodipterus australis showing close similarities to Cainocara enigma, as well as images of the Gogo field site fossils and researchers Dr Alice Clement and Hannah Thiele.
Research Report:A new fossil fish sheds light on the rapid evolution of early lungfishes
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