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Identify: West Indian Ocean coelacanth or African coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), referred to as ‘gombessa’ within the Comoros Islands
The place it lives: Off the east coast of Africa
What it eats: A wide range of fish and cephalopods, together with squid and cuttlefish.
Why it is superior: Scientists thought all coelacanths went extinct over 65 million years in the past — till the West Indian Ocean coelacanth was discovered by likelihood residing off the coast of South Africa in 1938 . Coelacanths first appeared over 400 million years in the past, however their fossil report stopped across the similar time because the dinosaurs disappeared. Their sudden reappearance means they’re what is called a Lazarus species.
These historic bony fish spend their days hiding inside caves and rising at evening to feed. They’ll develop as much as 6.5 toes (2 meters) lengthy and weigh as much as 198 kilos (90 kilograms).
These huge, primitive fish may dwell for an extremely very long time.
Preliminary research urged coelacanths have a most lifespan of 20 years. However this discovering was at odds with different points of the fish’s life historical past, together with sluggish metabolism and low oxygen absorption — traits usually related to longevity. In 2021, researchers used a complicated growing older method to depend calcified constructions on coelacanth scales — like counting the expansion rings on a tree — and located they might dwell as much as 100 years.
Associated: Madagascar could also be a secret stronghold for ‘residing fossil’ fish
The examine additionally discovered they’re sluggish to achieve sexual maturity, with males breeding from the age of 40 and females from age 58. Additionally they have the longest gestation interval of any recognized vertebrate, with pregnancies lasting 5 years.
That is not all. Coelacanths may hunt whereas doing a headstand due to their particular skeleton, with most of their bone mass of their head and tail.
In 1997, virtually 60 years after the West Indian Ocean coelacanth’s rediscovery, scientists discovered one other coelacanth species in Indonesia. Recognized regionally as ‘raja laut’ (‘king of the ocean’), it was given the scientific identify L. menadoensis.
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