CAnd the Australian “lungfish” (Neoceratodus forsteriIt is possible, in addition, that it has changed very little since the time certain fish left the water, 420 million years ago, to venture onto the continents. This explains the fact that the lungfish arrangement to which it belongs specifically contains lungs, allowing them to breathe when swimming on the surface.

In the preliminary version of their study, published January 18 on the journal’s website nature, The researchers wrote that this “decoding” confirms that their fish are not close to coelacanths – another survivor of distant prehistoric times – but are more related to the lineage that gave birth to the animals.

The previous record holder was Ipsolutl, an amphibian that lives in Mexico. Experts disagree on why these species have such large genomes – or why, on the contrary, humans have such small genes. But it quickly became apparent in the first decade of the 21st century, shortly after the first decoding of the human genome, that intelligence was not a determining factor in explaining genetic complexity.