Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Riversleigh Lungfish                                                                                                                                                         Last updated 04/07/2009

Several different types of lungfish have been identified in the Riversleigh deposits, one closely related to the living Queensland lungfish, one known only from Riversleigh, and another species that appears to be related to the species found in the deposits in the Leaf Locality in the Tirari Desert in South Australia.

Neoceratodus gregoryi is very similar to the living Queensland lungfish, Neoceratodus fosteri, now present only in southeast Queensland. N. gregoryi is the best known lungfish in the Riversleigh deposits, and is also found from Eocene sediments in the Redbank Plains deposit, Brisbane, and in central Australia in Oligocene-Miocene to Pleistocene deposits. While being very similar to the extant species, N. fosteri, at an estimated size of nearly 4 m it was much bigger then its modern relative at only 1.1 m. It is believed to have been an omnivore, like its living relative, eating such things as aquatic plants and invertebrates such as snails, and again like its living relative, scavenging dead animals including mammals and turtles. It is thought its similarity to the modern lungfish might have extended to the habitat needed for breeding, deep water with adjacent reed banks for shelter and feeding of the young.

Melody's Maze Site at Riversleigh is a deposit with many lungfish tooth plates and disarticulated skull elements.

Sources & Further reading

Michael Archer, Suzanne J. Hand & Henk Godthelp, Australia's Lost World: Riversleigh, world heritage Site, Reed New Holland