Lungfish Are Closer to Humans Than Most Fish

Lungfish are more closely related to humans and other land vertebrates than they are to most familiar fish like salmon and tuna.

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Lungfish look like ordinary aquatic animals, but their place on the evolutionary tree is surprisingly close to ours. They belong to the lobe-finned fish group, the branch of vertebrates from which land animals eventually arose. Genetic studies have repeatedly supported lungfish as the closest living relatives of tetrapods, the group that includes amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. That means a lungfish shares a more recent common ancestor with humans than it does with familiar ray-finned fish such as salmon or tuna. The distinction is about evolutionary relationships, not about lungfish being partly human or being less of a fish in everyday language. Lungfish and coelacanths are among the few surviving lobe-finned fish lineages outside the tetrapods. Their anatomy also contains features relevant to the transition from aquatic life toward life on land, including lobed fins and air-breathing structures. The discovery and sequencing of genomes from these unusual animals have helped researchers investigate how ancient vertebrates eventually developed the traits that allowed their descendants to live on land. The broader lesson is that everyday labels such as fish can hide a much more complicated evolutionary history.

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