A Strange Fish Indeed by Robert H. Grant

Part III—Follow-up Facts

Ms. Courtenay-Latimer, Dr. Smith, and their coelacanth became overnight celebrities. For a one-day-only showing of the coelacanth in East London in 1939, 20,000 visitors reportedly showed up.
Fossils of the class of fish to which the coelacanth belongs appeared some 400 million years ago, mostly in fresh water environments on all continents except Antarctica.
The fish specimen was named Latimeria chalumnae in honor of Ms. Courtenay-Latimer and the area in which it was caught (Chalumna River mouth).
At the time of the discovery, it was thought that the coelacanth may have been the fish species that led to the first land amphibian, using its fleshy limbs to walk onto land. (With the use of mitochondrial DNA sequencing technology, it is currently thought that an extinct fish known as Eusthenopteron and the few extant species of lungfishes found in Africa and South America are the more likely evolutionary links between fishes and amphibians.)
Another living coelacanth was not found until 14 years later. It was caught by a fisherman in the Comoros Islands hundreds of miles north of the Chalumna River. Its internal organs were preserved, leading to many interesting insights into its biology.
Based on recent and ongoing observations of coelacanths off the Comoros, scientists know that coelacanths live about 180 meters deep in caves, bear live young, and live for about 60 years.
Comoros fisherman had known about the fish for years, calling it “Gombessa.”
In 1997, two American scientists visiting Indonesia spotted a coelacanth at a fish market. DNA studies have shown it to be a different species of coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis. Indonesian fisherman had also known about this fish for years, calling it “Raja Laut”—King of the Sea.
Small populations of coelacanths have been found off the east coast of Africa and one off the coast of Indonesia. Global numbers of both species combined are estimated at about 1,000 individuals. Latimera chalumnae is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
Ms. Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer died on May 17, 2004, aged 97.

Originally published at http://www.sciencecases.org/strange_fish/strange_fish3.asp