Question 1

How do you say Coelacanth?

Accepted Answer

Coelacanth is pronounced SEE-luh-kanth. The tricky part is that silent 'oe' at the start, which sounds like just a plain 'ee' sound. Break it into three parts: SEE, then luh, then kanth. The 'c' at the end of 'ac' blends into the 'k' sound of 'kanth,' so the whole thing flows as SEE-luh-kanth. Once you say it a few times it starts to feel surprisingly natural.

Question 2

What does Coelacanth mean?

Accepted Answer

Coelacanth means 'hollow spine' in Ancient Greek. The name comes from koilos, meaning hollow, and akantha, meaning spine or thorn. The name was chosen by Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz in 1836 because the fin rays and internal spinal supports of this fish are hollow tubes rather than solid bone. It is one of those scientific names that actually describes something genuinely weird and real about the animal's body.

Question 3

Is the coelacanth still alive today?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the coelacanth is absolutely still alive. Two living species exist today: Latimeria chalumnae in the western Indian Ocean near the Comoros Islands and East Africa, and Latimeria menadoensis discovered in Indonesia in 1997. They were thought to be extinct for 66 million years until a living specimen was identified in South Africa in 1938. Both species are now critically endangered, with the African population estimated at fewer than 1,000 individuals.

Question 4

How old is the coelacanth as a species?

Accepted Answer

Coelacanth fossils date back approximately 410 million years to the Devonian period. That makes the coelacanth lineage older than trees, older than the Atlantic Ocean, and older than virtually every mountain range on Earth. About 90 fossil species have been identified. The two living species alive today look remarkably similar to those ancient forms, which is why scientists call the coelacanth a 'living fossil,' though they have still been slowly evolving all along.

Question 5

How big is a coelacanth?

Accepted Answer

Living coelacanths typically reach about 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length and weigh up to around 198 pounds (90 kg). That makes them roughly as heavy as a giant panda and about as long as a refrigerator lying on its side. Fossil species could get much larger: the freshwater coelacanth Mawsonia from Cretaceous Africa reached up to 3 meters long, roughly the size of a large adult human stretched out twice over.

Question 6

Who discovered the living coelacanth?

Accepted Answer

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a 24-year-old museum curator in East London, South Africa, discovered the first known living coelacanth on December 22, 1938. She spotted it in a pile of fish at a local dock, recognized it as something extraordinary, sketched it, and had it preserved before contacting fish expert J.L.B. Smith, who confirmed the identification. The living species Latimeria was later named in her honor, making her one of very few people to have a genus of living vertebrates named after them during their own lifetime.

Question 7

What does a coelacanth eat?

Accepted Answer

Coelacanths are carnivores that hunt at night in deep water. They eat squid, cuttlefish, small sharks, eels, and various deep-sea fish. Scientists believe they are ambush predators, drifting slowly in the dark until they are close to prey and then striking with a rapid lunge. Their skull has a special hinge joint that lets both the upper and lower jaws move at the same time, creating a huge gape that can engulf prey almost instantly.

Question 8

Where do coelacanths live?

Accepted Answer

Living coelacanths are found in two main regions of the world. Latimeria chalumnae lives in the western Indian Ocean, especially around the Comoros Islands, as well as off the coasts of South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, and Madagascar. Latimeria menadoensis lives near Sulawesi in Indonesia, over 10,000 kilometers away. Both populations live at depths of 100 to 400 meters, sheltering in underwater volcanic caves during the day and hunting in shallower water at night.

Question 9

Are coelacanths related to dinosaurs?

Accepted Answer

Coelacanths are not dinosaurs and are not closely related to them. Dinosaurs are reptiles, while coelacanths are fish. However, they did live alongside dinosaurs for tens of millions of years during the Mesozoic Era. Coelacanths are actually more closely related to humans than they are to most other fish, because they are lobe-finned fish whose lineage is on the evolutionary branch that eventually led to amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and all other land-living vertebrates.

Question 10

Why is the coelacanth special to scientists?

Accepted Answer

Scientists treasure the coelacanth for several reasons. It belongs to the same broad group of fish that gave rise to the first land-walking vertebrates around 375 million years ago, so studying it gives clues about how legs and walking evolved. Its fleshy lobed fins move in a diagonal alternating pattern almost identical to how four-limbed animals walk. Its 2013 genome sequence showed it has one of the slowest-changing genomes of any vertebrate, helping scientists understand the pace of evolution. It is also one of the most dramatic 'rediscoveries' in the entire history of biology.

Question 11

How long do coelacanths live?

Accepted Answer

Scientists now estimate coelacanths can live for approximately 60 years, which is much longer than researchers originally thought. A 2021 study published in the journal Current Biology used growth rings in their scales, similar to tree rings, to revise earlier estimates that had suggested lifespans of only about 20 years. The same study found that female coelacanths do not reach sexual maturity until about age 40 to 69, which is one reason their populations are so vulnerable and slow to recover from losses.

Question 12

Can coelacanths walk on land?

Accepted Answer

No, coelacanths cannot walk on land and never come out of the water. Their fleshy lobed fins are not strong enough to support their weight on land, and they breathe through gills like other fish. However, their fins do move in a diagonal alternating pattern that mirrors the way four-legged animals walk, which is one of the reasons scientists study them. Coelacanths represent an ancient evolutionary branch related to the ancestors of land animals, but they themselves stayed in the ocean.

Question 13

Is the coelacanth endangered?

Accepted Answer

Yes, both living species of coelacanth are listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List. The western Indian Ocean population of Latimeria chalumnae is estimated at fewer than 1,000 individuals, possibly far fewer. They are not hunted for food because their flesh is oily and foul-tasting, but they are frequently caught and killed as accidental bycatch in deep-set shark nets. Their extremely slow reproduction, with a gestation period of about three years and late sexual maturity, means populations rebuild very slowly once numbers drop.

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