Sagenodus and the Origin of Modern Lungfish

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The lungfishes represent an important group in the origin of terrestrial vertebrates. Important new fossil materials in two fossil genera have been collected. These specimens will be studied and described in detail. The newly described specimens will permit the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of the lungfishes including a dramatic transition that occurred approximately 350 million years ago at the end of the Devonian, resulting in the evolution of the modern lungfishes. It has been theorized that this morphological transition resulted from paedomorphosis, a process where juvenile characters come to be expressed in adult animals. Paedomorphosis may be an important macroevolutionary process.