World News for Students of English

02-02-2022 15:00

A primitive Australian fish that lives in a San Francisco museum is believed to be the oldest living aquarium fish in the world.

Methuselah is a 1.2-meter Australian lungfish, and it weighs around 18.1 kilograms. Scientists brought it to the San Francisco museum in 1938 from Australia, and it now lives at the California Academy of Sciences. It likes to eat fish and get belly rubs, and scientists believe that it’s around 90 years old.

The type of animal has both lungs and gills, and experts believe that it’s the evolutionary link between fish and amphibians. The species is threatened, and it’s no longer possible to get it from Australian waters, so biologists at the academy said that it was unlikely they’d get a replacement once Methuselah dies.

Difficult words: gills (the breathing body part of fish), evolutionary link (the animal or plant that is part of the development of other animals or plants), amphibian (a cold-blooded animal that lives both on land and in water, such as the frog).

You can watch the video news lower on this page.