Index / Lazarus Files / Coelacanth
Lazarus Files · CR Critically Endangered
Coelacanth
Latimeria chalumnae
Science declared it extinct for 66 million years. Then, three days before Christmas 1938, a museum curator opened a fishing boat's catch and found one staring back.
CR · Critically Endangered
Overview
The coelacanth is a metre-and-a-half deep-water fish that was believed to have gone extinct alongside the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago — until a living one was pulled from the Indian Ocean in 1938.
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Field data
| IUCN status | CR · Critically Endangered |
|---|---|
| Population | Estimated in the low hundreds; fewer than ~500 mature individuals |
| Trend | decreasing |
| Last assessed | 2000 |
| Class / Order | Actinistia · Coelacanthiformes |
| Family | Latimeriidae |
| Size | Up to ~2 m (6.5 ft) |
| Lifespan | Possibly up to ~100 years |
| Range | Comoros Islands, East African coast (Kenya to South Africa), Western Indian Ocean |
Why it matters
Evolutionary distinction
- Moves its fleshy, limb-like lobed fins in an alternating pattern, like a trotting animal — a living glimpse of the fish-to-tetrapod transition.
- Has a hinged joint in its skull that lets it swing the front of its head upward to swallow prey, found in no other living animal.
- Possesses a fluid-filled 'rostral organ' in its snout used to detect the faint electric fields of prey.
- Gives birth to live young after a gestation thought to last around three years — among the longest of any vertebrate.
Record
Timeline
- ~360 MyaCoelacanth lineage appears in the fossil record.
- ~66 MyaLast known coelacanth fossils; presumed extinct thereafter.
- 1938A living specimen is caught off South Africa and identified by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer.
- 1997A second living species is discovered in Indonesia (Latimeria menadoensis).
From the collection
Take one home
art print
Coelacanth art print
Museum-grade art print from the Coelacanth plate.
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Coelacanth plush
Museum-grade plush from the Coelacanth plate.
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notebook
Coelacanth notebook
Museum-grade notebook from the Coelacanth plate.
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Common questions
FAQ
- Is the coelacanth extinct?
- No. Long believed extinct for around 66 million years, a living coelacanth was caught off South Africa in 1938. It survives today but is Critically Endangered, with a population estimated in the low hundreds.
- Why is the coelacanth called a living fossil?
- Its body plan — including fleshy, limb-like lobed fins and a hinged skull — has changed remarkably little from fossils tens of millions of years old, making it a rare living window into early vertebrate evolution.