Coelacanth History Of The Discovery South Africa First Find

The first hint that a modern, living coelacanth existed was when Marjorie Courtenay-LatimerMarjorie Eileen Doris Courtenay-Latimer ( February 24, 1907- May 17, 2004) was the 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 seventy million yea, who was curator of a museum in East LondonThis article is about the city in South Africa. For the area of London, United Kingdom, see East End of London. East London ( Afrikaans: Oos-Londen Xhosa: Imonti population 500,000) is a city in southeast South Africa, situated in the Eastern Cape Provinc, South Africa, was inspecting local fish catches for unusual specimens in 1938. She was looking at the catch of a fishing boat that had been fishing for sharksee text Sharks are a group (superorder Selachimorpha of fish, with a full cartilaginous skeleton, a streamlined body plan with between 5 and 7 gill slits along the sides (most often) or side of the head (the first modified slit is behind the eye and calls near the Chalumna River , and saw an odd blue fish fin in the catch. She pulled the fish out of the pile and brought it to the museum to find out what kind of fish it was. Failing to find it in any of her books, she attempted to contact her friend, Professor James Leonard Brierley Smith , but he was away. Unable to preserve the fish, she sent it to a taxidermist. When Smith returned, he immediately recognized it as a coelacanth, known only from fossils. The species was named Latimeria chalumnae in honour of her and the waters in which it was found.

1.2 Comoros

A worldwide search was launched for more coelacanths, with a reward of 100 BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly poundsAs a unit of currency, the term pound originates from the value of a Troy pound weight ( Latin libra , of high purity silver, and is the currency unit of a number of countries: Cyprus see Cyprus Pound Egypt Gibraltar Lebanon Malta Syria see Syrian pound U (a very substantial sum to the average South African fisherman of the time). Fourteen years later, they were found in the Comoros. The Comorans, in the port of Mutsamudu on the Comoran island of Anjouan, were puzzled that someone would pay big money for what the locals called a gombessa or mame, an inferior (nearly inedible) fish that their fishermen occasionally caught by mistake.

They now understand the significance of their endangered species and have a program in place to return any accidentally caught gombessa to deep water so that they can survive.

Smith, who died in 1968, wrote his account of the coelacanth story in the book Old Fourlegs, first published in 1956. His book Sea Fishes of the Indian Ocean, illustrated and co-authored by his wife Margaret, remains the standard ichthyological reference for the region.

1.3 Sulawesi, Indonesia: a second species

In 1997, Arnaz and Mark Erdmann were traveling on honeymoon in Indonesia and saw a strange fish entering the market at Manado Tua , on the island of Sulawesi. Arnaz Erdmann recognized it as a gombessa, but it was brown, not blue. (The Erdmanns did not realize this was a new species until an expert saw their photo on the Web.) DNA-testing revealed that this species, called rajah laut ('King of the Sea') by the Indonesians, are not related to the Comoran population. It was given the scientific name Latimeria menadoensis.

1.4 St. Lucia Marine Protected Area, South Africa

In South Africa, the search continued on and off over the years. One diver, 46-year-old, Riaan Bouwer, lost his life exploring for coelacanths in June 1998. On October 28th, 2000, just south of the Mozambique border, in Sodwana Bay in the St. Lucia Marine Protected Area, three pleasure divers - Pieter Venter, Peter Timm and Etienne le Roux - made a dive to 104 metres and suddenly spotted a coelacanth. Without cameras, the group decided to return.

Calling themselves SA Coelacanth Expedition 2000 the group, with several additional members, returned and on November 26, they performed a first dive without seeing coelacanths. The next day Pieter Venter, Gilbert Gunn, Christo Serfontein and Dennis Harding, went down again. Moving from cavern to cavern, they found three coelacanths. The largest was between 1.5 and 1.8 metres long, the other two 1.2 metres and 1 metre. The fish swam heads down and appeared to be feeding off of ledges. The cameramen took video footage and photos. Then disaster struck. Assisting Christo, who suddenly passed out under water, 34-year-old Dennis Harding rose to the surface with him in an uncontrolled ascent. Harding complained of neck pains and died in the boat. Apparently, he had suffered a cerebral embolism. Christo recovered after being taken underwater for recompression.

However, the find was big news in South Africa. In March-April 2002, the Jago Submersible and Fricke Dive Team descended into the depths off Sodwana and observed 15 coelacanths, one pregnant. Tissue samples were taken using a dart probe.

2 Notes

Coelacanthimorpha or Actinistia are sometimes used to designate the group of Sarcopterygii animals that contains the Coelacanthiformes.

3 References

"Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer." The Daily Telegraph (London). May 19, 2004.
Myrna Oliver. "Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, 97; Confirmed Rare Fish's Existence." Los Angeles Times. June 13, 2004. pg. B.16
Jeremy Pearce. "Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, Naturalist, Is Dead at 97." New York Times. June 7, 2004. pg. B.6
Keith S. Thompson. Living Fossil: The Story of the Coelacanth. New York: W.W. Norton, 1991.

4 External links

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1 History of the discovery

1.1 South Africa: First find