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The coelacanth was long considered a "living fossil" because scientists thought it was the sole remaining member of a taxon otherwise known only from fossils, with no close relations alive, [8] and that it evolved into roughly its current form approximately 400 million years ago. [1]
After spending 30 minutes out of water, the fish, still alive, was placed in a netted pool in front of a restaurant at the edge of the sea. It survived for 17 hours. Coelacanths usually live at depths of 200–1,000 metres. The fish was filmed by local authorities swimming in the metre-deep pool, then frozen after it died.
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 ...
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.
Marjorie Eileen Doris Courtenay-Latimer (24 February 1907 – 17 May 2004) was a South African museum official, who in 1938, brought to the attention of the world the existence of the coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct for 65 million years. Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer discovered this coelacanth, formerly only seen in fossils ...
Coelacanths of the genus Latimeria still live today in the open oceans and retained many primordial features of ancient sarcopterygians, earning them a reputation as living fossils. The Rhipidistians, whose ancestors probably lived in the oceans near river mouths and estuaries , left the marine world and migrated into freshwater habitats.
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 family Latimeriidae ...
Evolution of fish. 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.