Portal:Fish/Selected fish/7

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Latimeria chalumnae

The coelacanth ('hollow spine' in Greek, coelia (κοιλιά) meaning hollow and acanthos (άκανθος) spine) is the common name for an order of fish that includes the oldest living lineage of jawed fish known to date. The coelacanths, which are closely related to lungfishes, were believed to have been extinct since the end of the Cretaceous period, until a live specimen was found off the east coast of South Africa, off the Chalumna River in 1938. Since then, they have been found in the Comoros, Sulawesi (Indonesia), Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park in South Africa.