(In this third and final installment of The Quest For Coelacanth (pronounced see'-la-canth, which means lobe-finned), Professor Smith, his wife, and his colleague Miss Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer bring their discovery of Coelacanth to the world. The world, however, was not all that sure how to receive the news.)
Professor Smith's wife Margaret was also an ichthyologist. Working together practically day and night, the Smiths wrote the first scientific paper on coelacanth. They began in February 1939 and finished in June 1939. Newspapers and radio picked up on the story, calling it "the most important scientific discovery of the century". Thousands of people lined up to get a glimpse of the ancient fish called "Old Fourlegs". There were quite a few unique things about this fish. With the photo above, courtesy of NOVA's website, we can have a look too. Here are the standout characteristics of this fish:
1.Rostral organ- Allows the coelacanth to respond to electrical fields in the water. Similar to the Ampullae of Lorenzini in a shark's snout.
2.Mouth-Its teeth work more like a trap, keeping prey in. Coelacanths suck their prey in and hold it captive, then swallow it whole.
3.Eyes- Like domestic cat's eyes, these eyes have few color cones but many rods to detect light. Coelacanths are thought to be colorblind but have great sight in the dark.
4.Brain- A 90 pound coelacanth may have a brain that weighs less than a tenth of an ounce. No living bony fish known has such a small brain. Even with this small brain, it has survived.
5.Intracranial joint-This joint allows the coelacanth to open its mouth very wide. The joint was discovered in fossils of primitive fish, but not in living fish.
6.Gills-of course, all fish have gills, but coelacanths have very small gills in comparison to body size. The gills indicate a slow-swimming fish rather than a faster-swimming fish.
7.Scales- Probably the most dramatic part of the coelacanth. They are blue-gray, hard and armor-like. There is again a similarity to a shark's skin-both sharks and coelacanths have dermal denticles. These are tooth-like spikes that are on top on the scales, protecting the coelacanth from predators and rocks.
8.Lobe-like fins- Most interesting to the scientists were these fins which are not directly attached to the body but are connected to the body by rod-like stalks, constructed something like our arms and legs. The coelacanth uses these like oars, rowing through the water. Because coelacanths move slowly, it was thought that they walked. That's where the idea of "Fourlegs" came from. A coelacanth can move through the water easily, even rotating completely in a circle.
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