Marbled lungfish，維多利亞肺魚。學名：埃塞俄比非洲肺魚 Protopterus aethiopicus。是一種超級頑強的魚類，是縱使人類毀滅地球的世界末日到來，也還是可以繼續生存的魚類。它是脊椎動物之中，擁有最多基因組的古老生物。
“…(Marbled lungfish) is also scientifically renowned for having the largest genome of any vertebrate on earth (possessing 133 million base pairs, which are the fundamental units that build the DNA double helix). Marbled lungfish is also likely to survive any apocalypse we might care to throw at the world as it will fully prepared for a barren world with no water; whatever happens, lungfish will be ready.”
Marbled lungfish是淡水魚，但是不可小覷了它。它可長大到2米長。它「退化」的鰭，在旱季時則有助於它在泥濘的陸地上匍伏前進。
“…this is one of the four African species of lungfish and is rather a common species in Central Africa, found through out the Congo and Nile river systems, as well as in all the Rift Valley lakes. It can grow to 2 m(6 ft 7in) in length and has an entire body that seems to be composed of one giant muscle or beautiful patterned giant tongue. Its fins take the form of rather tiny flailing arms,…,if a lungfish finds itself out of the water, the fins rotate like a robotic arm to propel the fish back to the water…”
Marbled lungfish除了在水裏用鰓呼吸，也可以直接從水面吸進空氣。在旱季，Marbled lungfish會鑽到泥土裏面，進行夏眠(aestivation)，耐心等雨季的到來。如果有需要，它甚至可以連續睡上長達兩年呢！
“…lungfish can also breathe like ‘normal’ fish, too — absorbing oxygen from the water through gills. However, lungfish can also gulp air at the water surface…when the water levels drop to a certain level, …, lungfish start digging, burrowing down into the soft mud. Once the have dug deep enough, they cocoon themselves by producing a thin, self-made mucus membrane — something like a slimy sleeping bag. Once ensconced inside, they shut down all their metabolic and brain activity, and stay in suspended animation, waiting for better timed. This shutdown in technically term ‘aestivation,…Lungfish can remain in this state for up to two years…”
Marbled lungfish嗜食軟體動物，包含大量的螺類。而螺類正是吸血蟲的中間宿主，Marbled lungfish吃了大量螺類，控制了吸血蟲的數量，間接對人類有益。
“…Lungfish…prefer to eat freshwater molluscs, with estimates suggesting that each fish can eat as many as 200 snails in one setting…snails are the intermediary host to the Schistosoma parasitic flatworm that impact millions of people in Africa with a disease called bilharzia, or schistosomiasis…so lungfish, despite delicious to eat, play an important role in indirectly helping human health…”
Marbled lungfish在4億年前就已經存在(按，那是屬於古生代(5.4億年前-2.51億年前))，當時還沒有恐龍，也還沒有開花植物(就更不用說任何哺乳動物了)，那是海洋生物的天下。
“Lungfish have now been on this planet for more than 400 million years — making them older than dinosaurs, older than flowering plants, older than the continents…”
這麼古老的生物，也就是所謂的活化石，值得我們致上最崇高的敬意。
每當世界列強在以核彈毀滅來相脅的時候，真的讓人感到人類真的活得不耐煩了。當人類在核戰中毀滅了，這個世界還有好多生物會活得好好的，而且會活得更好呢！
至於Marbled lungfish，維多利亞肺魚/埃塞俄比非洲肺魚，當然也會繼續活得很好，而且只有更好！
*：Doug Mackay – Hope, “The secret life of FISH,” First published in 2021 by Ivy Press, an imprint of The Quarto Group.
2023/6/5 Marbled lungfish，維多利亞肺魚/埃塞俄比非洲肺魚 Damakey
