Polypterus palmas, also called the shortfin or marbled bichir, is a fish in the family Polypteridae found in freshwater environments throughout West Africa.

This species has true lungs in addition to gills, and uses a blowhole-like organ called a spiracle to take breaths of atmospheric oxygen (a trait it shares with stem-tetrapods).

This allows P. palmas to survive poorly oxygenated water conditions—such as in dried-out seasonal pools—or even entirely on land indefinitely provided that their spiracles and gills remain damp.

One of its notable stabilomorphic traits is its accessory olfactory organ—an internal structure that has become vestigial or nonexistent in most extant fishes.

Due to its retention of this organ and elongate, nostril-like structures called nares, P. palmas has a very precise sense of smell.