If you’ve been around for 65 million years and more, what difference will another 75 make? Quite a lot, actually, because although coelacanths were known from fossil records to have been in existence at the same time as the dinosaurs, the first live specimen was identified only 75 years ago.
If you’ve been around for 65 million years and more, what difference will another 75 make? Quite a lot, actually, because although coelacanths were known from fossil records to have been in existence at the same time as the dinosaurs, the first live specimen was identified only 75 years ago.
Scientists were convinced that this odd-shaped fish had become extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs, so Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer rang alarm bells when she described an unusual fish that had been caught off the coast of East London on 22 December 1938. Rhodes chemistry professor, JLB Smith then identified the fish as a coelacanth and spent the next 14 years searching for a second specimen.
The South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) is hosting a number of events to celebrate the 75th anniversary of this remarkable discovery. One of the highlights of this year’s celebrations will be the Smith Memorial Lecture to be delivered by marine ecologist Dr Kerry Sink, on 19 November.
The Institute's Managing Director, Dr Angus Paterson, described the discovery of the coelacanth as an essentially Grahamstown story in which a chemistry professor at a small university in the 1930s “basically ends up with the zoological find of the 20th century”.
Paterson said the discovery served to launch Grahamstown as a world-renowned centre for aquatic research and in ichthyology specifically.
He acknowledged that some people find it difficult to understand how they can run a marine institution in a rural setting and still be a global player in the field.
Although the big discovery was made many years ago, he said, there was still a considerable amount of behavioural and anatomical coelacanth research going on right now.
Earlier this year the respected science magazine, Nature, published a front-cover article about the unravelling of the coelacanth genome. Paterson said South African scientists played a key role in this project.
He said there is currently some important work going on about the conservation of the species and expressed concern about the large number of coelacanths being fished off the East Coast of Africa. They are being caught by artisanal fisherman who are targeting oily fish normally found in deep waters off the Tanzanian and Kenyan coasts.
He also pointed out that it is difficult to research coelacanths because they inhabit fairly deep parts of the ocean.
Paterson said the coelacanth is used as the iconic symbol of a broader marine conservation programme known as the Africa Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme (ACEP). It was born in 2000 following the discovery of live coelacanths off Sodwana Bay.
A special celebration to mark the 75th anniversary and an ACEP Open Day will be held at the Port Elizabeth Yacht Club on 26 November
Paterson said the aim of the celebrations is “a combination of communicating the current message while celebrating the past”.
Know one when you meet one
The Latin name of the coelacanth is Latimeria chalumnae. The first part of the name to honour the person who first described a living specimen, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer and the second to recall the Chalumna River – as the first specimen was caught near the mouth of this river.
Coelacanths have cartilaginous and bony skeletons.
They have large overlapping scales and eight fins.
They are dark blue in colour with distinctive white-pink patches on them.
Females reaching up to two metres in length and weighing up to 98kg are significantly larger than males at 1.64 metres and 65kg
Coelacanths are nocturnal and occur at depths of 150mm to 700mm.
– Source: SAIAB
Footage of coelacanths taken by SAIAB’s Remotely Operated submersible is available on the SAIAB website: see http://www.saiab.ac.za/milestones.htm and scroll down the years to the video clip under 2011.
