Fish Out of Water 229Smith named this astounding find Latimeria (after the discoverer) chalumnae (after where it
was found), and it was the sensation of the scientific world in 1939. After 13 hard years of
searching, however, Smith and the fishermen of South Africa had yet to find another and
were beginning to despair. So much crucial information had been lost when its guts had been
discarded! They sent out a “wanted” poster with a photograph of the fish and a £100 reward
and circulated them all over the African coast. Then, in 1952, a lucky break occurred.
Another fisherman, Eric Hunt, had distributed Smith’s reward poster up and down the
East African coast, and a local fisherman in the tiny Comoros Islands north of Madagascar
FIGURE 10.2. Evolutionary transformation series of the coelacanths, from the primitive Triassic form, which
looks much like other early sarcopterygians, to the highly specialized living fossil Latimeria (bottom drawing).
Even though there is dramatic change in shape, these animals still retain the hallmarks of coelacanths,
including the extra lobed fin in the end of the tail, the triangular opercular bone covering the gills, and the
distinctive shape of the lobed pectoral, pelvic, and anal fins, but ray-finned dorsal fins. (From Clack 2002; used
with permission)
Triassic (230 million years ago)Cretaceous (80 million years ago)Modern Coelacanth
Latimeria