In two separate studies, paleontologists in Australia and China examined the fossilized remains of enigmatic Devonian lungfish with cutting-edge imaging, revealing overlooked anatomical details and deepening our understanding of early vertebrate evolution. Their results appear in the Canadian Journal of Zoology and the journal Current Biology.
Paleolophus yunnanensis, a species of lungfish that swam in the South Chinese seas 410 million years ago. Image credit: Brian Choo, Flinders University.
In the first study, Flinders University paleontologist Alice Clement and colleagues focused on Cainocara enigma, an enigmatic fossil known from a single specimen from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation in Western Australia.
“The new research is slowly adding to the story of the key Australian fossil site’s rich diversity of lungfishes, including re-examining poorly preserved specimens,” Dr. Clement said.
“One such damaged specimen has yielded valuable new clues. It comes from Australia’s first ‘Great Barrier Reef,’ the Devonian-age reef in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia.”
“The unusual specimen was so enigmatic, the authors who first described it in 2010 considered it could be a whole new type of fish never before seen in science.”
“Using high-tech scanning, this time we were able to create comprehensive new digital images of the external and internal cranium, showcasing the complexity of the brain cavity of this fascinating lungfish.”
“In fact, we were also able to confirm that previous impressions were probably viewed upside down and back to front.”
“We were able to compare its most preserved inner ear area with other Gogo lungfish,” said Flinders University paleontologist Hannah Thiele.
“This is an extra data point in the amazing collection of lungfish and early vertebrate species.”
“It adds to the wider understanding of the evolution of these earliest lobe-finned fishes, both in Gondwana and across the world.”
In the second study, Flinders University paleontologist Brian Choo and colleagues described a new species of lungfish from the Devonian of China: Paleolophus yunnanensis.
“Paleolophus yunnanensis gives us an unprecedented look at a lungfish from a time between their earliest appearance and their great diversification a few million years later,” Dr. Choo said.
“It was a time when the group was just starting to develop the distinctive feeding adaptations that would serve them for the remainder of the Devonian and onwards to the present day.”
“Lungfish are an incredibly ancient lineage, including the still living Australian lungfish from Queensland, that have long fascinated researchers due to their close relationship to the tetrapods, or backboned animals with limbs, including humans.”
“The exceptional lungfish skull unearthed in 410 million-year-old rocks in Yunnan gives us major insights into the rapid evolutionary diversification between the Early-, Middle- and Late Devonian.”
“The new specimen had similar and divergent features compared to the earliest and most primitive Diabolepis fossil in southern China, and species such as Uranolophus from Wyoming in the United States and other forms like Australia’s Dipnorhynchus.”
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Hannah S. Thiele et al. Deciphering Cainocara enigma from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation, Australia. Canadian Journal of Zoology, published online January 28, 2026; doi: 10.1139/cjz-2025-0109
Tuo Qiao et al. 2026. A new fossil fish sheds light on the rapid evolution of early lungfishes. Current Biology 36 (1): 243-251; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.11.032
