Sagenodus and the Origin of Modern Lungfish

肺鱼是陆生脊椎动物起源中的一个重要类群。在两个化石属中收集到重要的新化石材料。这些标本将被研究和详细描述。新描述的标本将允许重建肺鱼的进化历史，包括大约3.5亿年前泥盆纪末发生的戏剧性转变，导致现代肺鱼的进化。理论上，这种形态上的转变是幼态形成的结果，这是一个幼年动物的特征在成年动物中表达的过程。幼态可能是一个重要的宏观进化过程。

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.