Via the BB Submitterator, Marilyn Terrell tells us:

Everyone thought they died out in the Cretaceous era, but no. Rediscovered in 1938 by South African museum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer who spotted this bizarro creature in an otherwise ordinary haul of fish, the coelacanth had been quietly minding its own business for millennia. They live so deep that they're rarely photographed alive. But in 2010, a specially trained team dived deep to photograph some in Sodwana Bay, South Africa for National Geographic.
Photo by Laurent Ballesta, and there's a larger gallery of images here.

  • TEKNA2007

    Wikipedia says:

    “As a food fish the coelacanth is almost worthless as its tissues exude oils that give the flesh a foul flavor.”

    I’m gonna guess that was written by a paleontologist and not a fisherman.

  • millrick

    obligatory Coelacanth advertising reference
    (in a badly recorded Jetta commercial)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw9H0sv3xw4

  • Space Toast

    I name him Stan.

    • Marilyn Terrell

      I think that’s a perfect name for this guy.

  • Anonymous

    I’ve seen the “original” coelacanth, it’s in a museum in East London, South Africa — it was quite a bit larger than I expected, but still totally awesome.

  • gwailo_joe

    whatever you do evolution-wise: someone, somewhere. . .wants to eat you.

    and will evolve in concert to do it.

  • entheo

    millrick, if we are having some obligatory Coelacanth advertising reference
    then I should put up the links to some Coelacanth plushies I found for sale when I was in Japan
    http://item.rakuten.co.jp/love-journey/5335b/
    http://item.rakuten.co.jp/love-journey/2462/

    and the link to their other Palaeozic Fish fossil plushies (just for Maggie Koerth-Baker) that this place has
    http://entheo.livejournal.com/30720.html

    • millrick

      LIKE!

  • Eark_the_Bunny

    When a Coelacanth smiles like that at you, be very, very afraid.

  • EeyoreX

    Ok, but what do these rare creatures taste like?

    You want to know, just admit it.

    • Anonymous

      They taste like chicken; what’d you expect? “-)

    • Flashman

      Apparently they are caught occasionally by Mozambique fishermen – which is how Courtenay-Latimer discovered the fish in the first place – and have just been eaten by the locals like any other fish.
      Not especially tasty I’d imagine, but then, when I think of coelacanths I think of pale, jaundiced things floating in murky formaldehyde. When I was a kid in South Africa my parents were friends with JLB Smith (historically considered to have ‘discovered’ the coelacanth, until more recently people have come to realize that it was in fact Margaret Courtenay-Latimer who first found it, sending the specimen on to JLB for confirmation), so these fish have always held some fascination for me.

    • irksome

      I would consider naming a child Coelacanth, if I was ever having a kid. But I’m not. So there.

      As to eating them, I remember reading that their bodies release uric acid upon death and that the locals consider them inedible. Excellent defense mechanism, tasting like piss.

  • sapere_aude

    That photo reminds me of a fish I saw many, many years ago in some aquarium – if memory serves, it was the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago – that looked like it had the face of Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. Creepy.

  • CANTFIGHTTHEDITE

    It’s a different coelacanth, of the genus Latimeria, not the genus that were swimming around in the Cretaceous. Of course, coelacanth comes from the order COELACANTHIFORMES, so the statement is true but slightly misleading.

    • Mister44

      You beat me to it.

      I love the Coelacanth just the same. *snuggles*

      re: “”As a food fish the coelacanth is almost worthless as its tissues exude oils that give the flesh a foul flavor.”

      I’m gonna guess that was written by a paleontologist and not a fisherman.”

      I dunno who wrote it, but I believe the consensus was that it doesn’t taste good. IIRC, when it was discovered in the 30′s at a fish market, the locals said they caught that type of fish from time to time, but that it was a ‘waste fish’, and not good to eat.

      • Talia

        Does make me wonder if there is an evolution thing that results in surviving species tasting bad. IE species that taste one way perish, while their mutations that taste another way don’t as much.

        It’s interesting to contemplate, if utterly unprovable.

        • Mister44

          IIRC, I think some insects use this defense. They taste like crap and/or are a bit poisonous and the birds won’t eat them. Then there are tasty, non-poisonous bugs who mimic their markings to avoid the same fate.

          I am not even sure how well fish can taste. I know they can ‘smell’. But considering animals eat their own shit and the offal, unless they are made sick or dead from eating it, I doubt bad taste is going to stop them too much. In the ocean a lot of things swallow other things whole.

          I think the coelocanth just lucked out that it’s niche survived the various extinction events. It makes me hope that even though Trilobites were shallow dwellers, that there are still some left somewhere in the unexplored abyss.

          • efergus3

            The Monarch and False Monarch butterflies.

    • Donald Petersen

      Just wondering: are there any genera remaining from the Cretaceous? Maybe some sharks or roaches?

      I am only an egg, especially when it comes to paleontology.

  • Church

    Oh nice. I think that’s the first pic of a live coelacanth that I’ve seen.

  • gwailo_joe

    Check this out: http://www.economist.com/node/18111764

    Large, carnivorous, cricket-like insects from 100 million years ago assigned to an existing genus.

    I knew my subscription would come in handy some day. . .

  • Sekino

    LOL Coelacanth: “HAI!! :D”

  • ToMajorTom

    I had never heard of a coelacanth before playing Nintendo’s Animal Crossing (when I was 40, no less). I suppose Nintendo filled in the gaps of my science education where public schools failed.

  • Richard

    This thread wouldn’t be complete without some fine coelacanth poetry.

    http://www.dinofish.com/poem.htm

  • Anonymous

    Why eat them? I know they Won’t like it and if we want to save them we can’t eat them, right?