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Coelacanth eggs are large, with only a thin layer of membrane to protect them. Embryos hatch within the female and eventually are born alive, which is a rarity in fish. This was only discovered when the American Museum of Natural History dissected its first coelacanth specimen in 1975 and found it pregnant with five embryos. [67]
Latimeria. Latimeria is a rare genus of fish which contains the only living species of coelacanth. It includes two extant species: the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) and the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis). They follow the oldest known living lineage of Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish and tetrapods), which ...
The Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis, Indonesian: raja laut), also called Sulawesi coelacanth, [1][3] is one of two living species of coelacanth, identifiable by its brown color. It is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN, [1] while the other species, L. chalumnae (West Indian Ocean coelacanth) is listed as critically endangered. [4]
The West Indian Ocean coelacanth[6] (Latimeria chalumnae) (sometimes known as gombessa, [2][7] African coelacanth, [8] or simply coelacanth[9]) is a crossopterygian, [10] one of two extant species of coelacanth, a rare order of vertebrates more closely related to lungfish and tetrapods than to the common ray-finned fishes.
Living fossil. The coelacanths were thought to have gone extinct 66 million years ago, until a living specimen belonging to the order was discovered in 1938. A living fossil is an extant taxon that phenotypically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old ...
Coelacanthidae. Coelacanthidae is an extinct family of coelacanths found in freshwater and marine strata throughout the world, originating during the Permian, and finally dying out during the Jurassic . The modern-day genus Latimeria is often erroneously thought to be in this family, when, in fact, it is the type genus of the more advanced ...
The evolution of fish began about 530 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion. It was during this time that the early chordates developed the skull and the vertebral column, leading to the first craniates and vertebrates. The first fish lineages belong to the Agnatha, or jawless fish. Early examples include Haikouichthys.
Latimeriidae is the only extant family of coelacanths, an ancient lineage of lobe-finned fish. It contains two extant species in the genus Latimeria, found in deep waters off the coasts of southern Africa and east-central Indonesia. In addition, several fossil genera are known from the Mesozoic of Europe, the Middle East, and the southeastern ...