The coelacanth (pronounced see-lee-a-canth) is a fish that has an fascinating history, due to the fact that it was thought to have died out 65 million years ago, but was found to still exist in the 1930s. Its rediscovery was seen as one of the most important zoological findings of the twentieth century.
‘Extinct’ Species
The coelacanth is a lobe-finned fish from the class sarcopterygii. They appear to have developed into their current form around 350 – 400 million years ago and have not changed or adapted since, meaning they are now often referred to as a living fossil. When the Natural History Museum was opened in London in 1881 its walls were decorated with carvings of animals with extinct species on the east wall and living species on the west wall. The carving of the coelacanth was placed on the east wall as the scientific community believed it had been extinct since the late Cretaceous period, 65 – 70 million years ago. The only evidence of its existence was through fossil records.
Rediscovery
The coelacanth was rediscovered in the late 1930s by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a thirty-two-year-old museum employee from the small South African town of East London. Being a self-taught expert in natural history and animal life she would often be called upon to identify strange and unusual species which were caught by local fishermen. On 23rd December 1938, a local trawler captain named Hendrick Goosen caught a haul of various fish while fishing just outside the mouth of the Chalumna River. Out of curiosity Courtenay-Latimer looked through his catch and found a fish she described as:
“The most beautiful fish I had ever seen … It was 5ft long, a pale, mauvy blue with faint flecks of whitish spots. It was covered in hard scales, and it had four limb-like fins and a strange little puppy-dog tail.”
However, Courtenay-Latimer was unable to identify the fish, and so took it away for further examination, hoping to work out what it was with the help of textbooks and academic journals. Courtenay-Latimer was unable to work out what species the fish was and therefore had it preserved by a taxidermist. She suspected it may be a coelacanth, but with the seeming impossibility of the species still existing tens of millions of years after its supposed extinction, she sought a second opinion. Courtenay-Latimer contacted Professor James Leonard Brierley Smith, a university lecturer who was an expert in fish and marine life, sending him a sketch of the fish through the post. After a delay he responded with a now-famous telegram:
“MOST IMPORTANT PRESERVE SKELETON AND GILLS = FISH DESCRIBED.”
When Professor Smith arrived in East London he was able to confirm that the preserved fish was indeed a coelacanth – a zoological discovery which made headlines around the world. The discovery of the fish led to fame and plaudits throughout the scientific community for both Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer and Professor Smith.
However, it would be a long time until another coelacanth would be caught. Efforts continued for many years to catch a second specimen, and even with the offer of a £100 reward no further coelacanths were captured. Eventually, two local Comoros Islands fishermen caught a coelacanth when fishing for other species in 1952 and further coelacanths were caught in the following years. It was established that coelacanths can grow to 6ft in length and weigh over 200lbs. They have two dorsal fins, a broad tail fin and their body is covered in heavy, armoured scales. Coelacanths usually live at depths of around 500 – 1000 metres but have been observed in shallower waters on rare occasions.
The coelacanth is a slow-moving fish and it is thought that they utilise ocean currents to save energy as they move around. They are a passive drift feeder, meaning they wait for prey to come towards them and then use the short bursts of speed they are capable of to catch squid, cuttlefish and small fishes. Being a lobe-finned fish the coelacanth is very different in its biology to the ray-finned fish such as cod, haddock, mackerel and similar species which are found in British waters. Coelacanths have limb-like fins and the remnants of lung-like organs within their body. Lobe-finned fish are very rare, with only the coelacanth and a number of species of freshwater lungfish existing today. Courtenay-Latimer’s name was honoured in the scientific name of the coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae.
A Second Species Discovered
In 1997 marine biologist Mark Erdmann was on holiday in Indonesia with his wife. They discovered a strange fish at a market on the island of Manado Tua off the coast of Sulawesi. He identified the fish as a coelacanth but was amazed to see that it had been caught thousands of miles away from its only known range off the coast of southern Africa. This led to speculation that there could be a second species of coelacanth, but as the fish had not been retained this was impossible to verify. The following year Erdmann returned to Indonesia and managed to locate a second coelacanth from a local fisherman. When this specimen was analysed it was confirmed that this was indeed a different species to that found off the coast of Africa. It was given the common name Indonesian coelacanth and the scientific name Latimeria menadoensis (after the Indonesian island where it was found). To differentiate the two species the coelacanth found in African waters has the common name West Indian Ocean coelacanth.
Conservation Status
Coelacanths are classed as a threatened species, and the continuing advancement of deep-sea trawling will make their survival even more uncertain. The Indonesian coelacanth is classed as Vulnerable by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), while the West Indian Ocean coelacanth has been designated in the most serious category of Critically Endangered. In August 2018 news emerged that the coelacanth population off the coast of South Africa – which is believed to number just several hundred individual coelacanths – could be wiped out by plans to drill for oil in the area.
Courtenay-Latimer’s Legacy
Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer went on to have a long and distinguished career in museum curation and natural history, and her discovery of the coelacanth meant that she remained famous for the rest of her life. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University in South Africa and she and Professor Smith were featured on a South African stamp. She retired in the 1970s and died aged 97 in 2004. Her name lives on in the name of the genus both coelacanth species belong to and Latimer’s Landing in her hometown of East London, South Africa is named after her. East London Museum, where Courtenay-Latimer was employed at the time she rediscovered the coelacanth, is still open today. The national football team of Comoros are officially nicknamed the Coelacanths due to the presence of coelacanths in the nation’s waters. They became a FIFA member in 2005, and in March 2021 Comoros successfully qualified for their first major tournament, the Africa Cup of Nations which was held in 2022.