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| The Coelacanth |
A couple of days ago my father had on this show on (sadly I do not know its name)... Perhaps it was a special shown on the History Channel or Discovery Channel? It was at the... Smithsonian(?) and they were showing fossils, discoveries and pieces of American history, both hidden and never seen before as well as things out in the open for visitors to see. At one point they walked you into a big private room with over 8 million types of fish, in jars and drawers and preserved with either alcohol or chloroform. For some reason, I've been unable to erase this from my mind. History has always confused and amused me, but I'd never shown as much interest in the concept of Evolution before now; before seeing this show. They pulled open a huge drawer and the guide began to tell us its story while she held it, half in the alcohol/chloroform and half out. The fish she showed the viewers is called Coelacanth, the living fossil. (It's name means "hollow spine" because of it's hollow spine fins). It has been around for 400 million years, supposedly going extinct 65 million years ago with the dinosaurs, based on fossils. However... As I heard on the special on TV, the world was shocked when a group of fishermen pulled one in in the early 1900s, but it quickly rotted and was useless. A decade (2?) or so later another one was caught, and this time scientists were called in soon enough to be able to look it over and dissect it. (I've read many times that1938 is the exact date it was "discovered", in South Africa; pulled in from a fisherman's nets... But I wanted to tell the museum's side too). I've read somewhere that there are only two known populations of this fish (South Africa and Indonesia). While I DO admit that there are more connections between humans and apes and that there's a bridge recently discovered between humans and old ape-like creatures (neaderthals, etc) that almost perfectly connects the two... But there's also a definite Theory of Evolution: That EVERYTHING came from the ocean (including the neanderthals and so on), coming from 1 celled creatures and more cells began to form together and evolve, creating fish and then so on. I find it so interesting and confusing that it's possible we came from a friggen fish! (I'd never really thought that deep beyond coming from apes). And if not us, OTHER animals may have come from this odd-looking and primitive fish with too many fins for it to handle and scales only prehistoric ocean dwellers seem to have. The deep-sea dweller considered an endangered species and only a thousand or so are known of individually (though it's not shocking). It's many lobe-finned fins move like limbs, and it's teeth has enamel similar to amphibians, reptiles, and other mammals. Its body is like no other living animal. I feel like an excited idiot and I really wish I could do a big important project on this guy. I'm also aware of other fossil fish, still wandering the oceans and other fish/creatures long gone but closely related to Coelacanth (like the Tiktaalik, around in the same period [ Devonian Period ]) but... For some reason this fish really made me think. xD Maybe its appearance is just so shocking.
Ref: National Geographic, Yahoo, PBS, Show, Myself
Till next time.
-RB
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