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Fish believed to be extinct for 65million years really isn't

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ShadesOfMe
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19 Dec 2008, 9:11 pm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ences.html

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What Marjorie had stumbled on, 70 years ago this month, would change her life for ever. More than that, it would profoundly alter man's understanding of the natural world.



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19 Dec 2008, 10:31 pm

This is incredibly old news. I remember learning about the coelacanth in grade school. :roll:


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ike
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19 Dec 2008, 10:31 pm

I read elsewhere that the Tanzanian coast is lousy with coelacanth... like, they're freaking everywhere... the only reason they weren't being caught more often there is because the native people didn't have any use for them because they're very tough and leathery and so they aren't very good food (which is what fishing is mostly about). Once the locals knew somebody wanted them that changed. The problem and the only reason why it took so many years for us to discover easy access to coelacanth apparently was because we weren't looking in the right area -- and the people who were in the right area (the locals) had no idea we were looking for them. It'd be like having somebody come over to your house for dinner and suddenly say "OH MY GOD!! WHERE DID YOU GET THAT HOUSE CAT!!?? I'VE BEEN SEARCHING MY WHOLE LIFE FOR ONE OF THOSE!"


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ike
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19 Dec 2008, 10:33 pm

CelticRose wrote:
This is incredibly old news. I remember learning about the coelacanth in grade school. :roll:


Yes, but until 2004 they were still extremely difficult to find. After 2004, you can go to Tanzania and trip over them.


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ascan
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20 Dec 2008, 4:44 am

ike wrote:
CelticRose wrote:
This is incredibly old news. I remember learning about the coelacanth in grade school. :roll:


Yes, but until 2004 they were still extremely difficult to find. After 2004, you can go to Tanzania and trip over them.

Well, they may have survived hundreds of millions of years, and perhaps you really can trip over the beasts at 400', but it's a certainty we'll do our best to see they're extinct within the lifetime of most of us here:

Weinberg in the link wrote:
...Today, they are being caught at an increasing rate, not least on account of an intensification of trawling, particularly by Japanese fishing boats, near the coelacanth's habitat.



MissConstrue
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20 Dec 2008, 7:46 am

Oh I've always been a HUGE fan of the coelacanth.

They look so ancient and they're hard for even marine biologists to get their hands on.

Image

They're like looking back at a million years since they haven't changed much since then!!


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Anemone
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20 Dec 2008, 1:13 pm

I did a project on them in Grade 5, and I pronounced their name wrong, and some kid pointed to the page in the book that I was holding up, with the picture, where it gave the correct pronunciation, and called me on it. :oops:

Older no-longer-dominant species tend to be in deeper waters. That sponge reef that they found off the coast of BC is in deeper waters (they were supposed to be extinct). There are sea lilies and bryozoans in deeper arctic waters. (You all know what they are, right?) Brachiopods (only 20 genera left) live in deeper colder waters. Wonder what else we'll find under the Arctic ice cap??? :wink: