amnhnyc:

CoelaCANTh? More like coelaCAN! Scientists once thought that coelacanths went extinct some 70 million years ago during the Cretaceous. Then, one turned up in 1938 when a fisherman caught a living coelacanth off the coast of South Africa. Plot twist: Decade laters, another species of coelacanth was caught.

Did you know? These ancient “fish” are actually more closely related to land animals. Their paired fins are lobelike and have joined bones, like arms and legs. Coelacanths live in deep saltwater environments and can grow up to 6 feet (2 m) long. They have an organ filled with a jelly-like substance located near the front of their heads, a trait found in no other vertebrate.

Scientists think this “rostral organ” helps the coelacanth hunt, allowing it to detect low-frequency electrical signals emitted by prey. What’s more? Unlike most other fish, coelacanths give birth to live young—a fact that remained unknown until 1975, when the Museum’s first coelacanth specimen was dissected and found to be pregnant with five embryos.

Photo 1: A living coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), wrecklessmarine, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist
Photo 2: Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the curator of the East London Museum in South Africa, who discovered the 1938 coelacanth.
Photo 3: From left to right: Ichthyology Curator James Atz, Dr. Charles Rand, Ichthyology Curator C. Lavett Smith, © AMNH Library (circa September 1975)

#science #discovery #amazingnature #wildlife #amnh
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