The Museum of the Earth in Ithaca has added a live South American lungfish named Minhoca to its exhibits, giving visitors a look at an animal related to species that lived in the region more than 350 million years ago.
Minhoca, also called Min, replaces Tembea, an African lungfish that died of old age late last year, according to the Paleontological Research Institution, which operates the museum.
Warren Allmon, the institution's director, said the exhibit helps visitors understand the kind of animal that lived in New York and Pennsylvania during the Devonian Period.
South American lungfish live in swamps and slow-moving fresh water in the Amazon basin, Paraguay and the lower Parana River basin. Juveniles breathe through gills, while adults breathe air and can burrow into mud during dry conditions.
Fossilized lungfish and their burrows can be found in rocks in the Catskill Mountains, which formed in a broad river delta during the Devonian Period. The museum also displays a lungfish burrow from Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, alongside other lungfish fossils.
Chris Wolfe, the institution's director of live animals, said Min is about 6 inches long and could grow to several feet.
The Museum of the Earth at 1259 Trumansburg Road is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Monday. Admission and accessibility program information is available at priweb.org.
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