Neoceratodus (lungfish) Reconstruction

3D Model

Is there such a thing as a ‘living fossil’? No, that’s an oxymoron, but Neoceratodus fosteri (the Australian/Queensland lungfish) comes close! The strange pronged tooth-plates of this animal are almost identical to species found in Cretaceous rocks - these have since also been assigned to the genus Neoceratodus.

This 3D skeletal reconstruction was created by Astrid O’Connor in Blender (v3.4) through a combination of segmenting and processing a whole-body lungfish CT scan (AMI 49438 by Jessie Maisano on Morphosource here) to create the ossified bones, modelling the fins from the amazing free cartilage pectoral fin model (specimen MCZ 157044 by @tomstewartscience here), and additional sculpting work.

This reconstruction also aknowledges the incredible lungfish research by Alice Clement.

Blue = cartilage, opaque = lung, bronze = teeth.