Lung Fish is very special

Lung Fish is very special. A fish that can hibernate for years without food or water could help scientists one day figure out how to put people into suspended animation to buy extra time during life saving operations.

The African lungfish can sleep out of water for three to five years without any sustenance, only to wake up when freshwater surroundings become available.

A study showing what happens on the cellular level to the fish could help scientists one day induce a similar state in humans, making long distance space travel and more advanced forms of medicine possible.

African lungfish is hand-fed shrimp whilst awake in tank. During suspended animation, genes related to detoxifying waste were 'up-regulated', stopping the build-up of harmful products in the liver. It has a prominent snout and small eyes. Its body is long and eel-like, some 9-15 times the length of the head. It has two pairs of long, filamentous fins.  

Lungfish have a highly specialized respiratory system. They have a distinct feature that their lungs are connected to the larynx and pharynx without a trachea.

Simultaneously, the expression of genes related to blood coagulation and iron and copper metabolism were 'down-regulated', which the researchers say could be strategies to conserve energy.

The African lungfish is one of the closest relatives of tetrapods, the first group of four-limbed vertebrates to live outside of water.

Their anatomy offers clues as to how animals first evolved to breathe air, as they have adapted a lung that can sustain them in periods when their environment dries up.

In addition to being able to gulp air to breathe, they are able to pump oxygenated blood separately to deoxygenated blood, similar to mammals.

They pass the long stretches of the dry season holed up in burrows in the mud, and they can use their long appendages to crawl and move outside of the water.

Today there are only six known species of lungfish, living only in Africa, South America and Australia.