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Fish That Live in the Desert

By Moushumi Mohanty; Illustration by Shridevi

We all know that fish live in water. But, there is a kind of fish which lives in the desert.

Difficult to believe?

Well, there is a variety of fish called the lungfish, which are found in Africa. When the rivers overflow, their water spreads to the dry regions around. It forms small lakes or ponds. The fish lives in these ponds.

And, when the lakes dry up, the lung fish don't die. They bury themselves in the wet mud where they can live for months. Specially, if they go deep underground. Sometimes, these fish have been found several metres below the soil.

Lungfish are one of the most ancient bony fishes found on earth today. They are very much like the fish that lived 200 million years ago at the beginning of the Mesozoic era. It was a period when dinosaurs, fish, flying reptiles and evergreen trees were found on the Earth.