Speartail fish
Latimeria chalumnae
Bony fish order Coelacanthidae
"Resurrection from the dead" coelacanth
Coelacanth first appeared in the 1839 book Poissons Fossiles by the naturalist Louis Agassiz, which the author named coelacanth because, from the fossil point of view, the fish's fin spines (bone spines on the fins) are hollow. For more than 100 years, the scientific community's knowledge of coelacanths came from fossils.
Louis Agassiz
Coelacanthus granulates, named by Louis Agassiz in 1839, is incomplete, missing a head and only a tail. (Image from the Internet)
Here it is necessary to briefly introduce a little bit of relevant taxonomic knowledge. Bony fish are divided into two main categories: meat fin fish and ray-fin fish. About 410-380 million years ago, the highest animals on Earth were meat-finned fish roaming in the water, so named because of their fleshy fins. The total fin fish is considered to be related to the origin of tetrapods, and it is believed that the total fin fish was extinct 65 million years ago, or even earlier. Three species of lungfish, a close relative of the total fin fish, still live in the southern hemisphere: the Australian lungfish, the American lungfish and the African lungfish.
Coelacanth is a branch of total fin fish that was known from the fossil record before the Ratima was discovered. It was from the fossil record that Smith recognized the strange fish from the sketch drawn by Ratimai as the coelacanth. The sudden discovery of the coelacanth, which was thought to have been extinct 65 million years ago, has shocked the world to a degree that can be imagined, just as humans discovered that dinosaurs did not go extinct and rediscovered, and it is conceivable what kind of shock it will cause. The discoverer will be famous in one fell swoop, and for researchers such things are unattainable, Ratimai is lucky, and Smith is not so lucky. Why? Let's look down:
Smith's misfortune — a costly vacation
Smith was unlucky, on Christmas leave, leaving him missing the opportunity to meet the Latimer fish in the first place. Although it has been confirmed that rathima is a coelacanth, there are still too many problems that need to be further studied, but only specimens of skin and internal bones remain, and the information that can be provided is limited. In order to further research, Smith began to offer bounties everywhere, constantly searching. But this search is 14 years.
In 1952, on another Christmas Eve, word finally came that the Latima fish had finally reappeared in the Comoros (pictured). In order to see the fish as soon as possible, Smith even asked the then South African Prime Minister Daniel François Malan to use a military helicopter to go there, a move that almost caused a dispute between South Africa and France, because the Comoros was a French colony at the time, until later, on July 6, 1975, when the Comoros declared independence and the Republic of the Comoros was established. After 14 years of searching, the results have finally come to fruition, and with the support of the Helicopter of the Prime Minister of South Africa, it seems that Professor Smith is going to operate at the right time! Is this really the case?
The second coelacanth was found in the Comoros Islands
Smith discovered the second coelacanth in 1952, with Smith in the middle
Once again, fate teased Smith
Professor Smith found that this second coelacanth is very different from the first coelacanth, the first coelacanth has 2 dorsal fins, while the newly discovered one has only one dorsal fin, Smith judged that the newly discovered coelacanth should belong to a different genus (the genus is a taxonomic unit) from the first coelacanth, he believes that he has discovered a new genus of coelacanth, so in order to thank the Prime Minister of South Africa Daniel François Malan for his support, He named the fish Malania anjounae after the Prime Minister's name and the spot of its discovery, Anjouan, which means Maran echinosper (also known as Maranfish) in the waters of Anjouan Island.
Ironically, however, further research later proved that the fish was the same fish as the first coelacanth, the Latimai, and that its first dorsal fin was missing, possibly due to injuries as a child. Professor Smith made an academic mistake in this way, and it was really a trick, poor Professor Smith! Fate was really unfair to Smith, and Luck once again made a big joke with Smith.
Later, nearly two hundred more Ratimah fish were caught in the waters off the Comoros. In 1982, the Government of the Comoros presented four articles to China, which are stored in the Chinese Paleozoological Museum of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Herbarium of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Shanghai Museum of Natural History and the Beijing Museum of Natural History. This is the origin of the speartail fish in the Shanghai Natural History Museum.
The first 2 Latima fish found
Above: Captain Goossen caught the first fish, the Latima (140 cm long) in the Charanne River in East London, South Africa, in 1938.
Below: The second Ratimai (135 cm long) caught in the Comoros in 1952 was mistakenly named maran by Smith due to the lack of a first dorsal fin, and it was later found that the two were the same fish. (Scientists can also make mistakes)
Comorian currency with speartail fish
As mentioned earlier, the Government of the Comoros presented 4 Ratimi fish to the Chinese Government, in view of the Affection of the Comoros Government for the Chinese people, here is the currency of the Comoros, is the currency of the Comoros also related to speartail fish? Yes, the Coiner currency of the Comoros is a speartail fish. The Comoros is a very small country, it is difficult to attract the attention of the world, but the speartail found here, let the world know the country at once, the Comoros government put the speartail on the national currency, it is understandable.
The Comoros was once a French colony, and its currency name is still called the Comorian Franc, and the 2005 edition of the 1,000 Yuan Comorian Franc is a speartail, which won the International Paper Money Association Best Banknote Award in 2007. In addition, there are 5 yuan worth of coins (1984) and 20,000 yuan of gold coins (1976).
Comorian franc 1,000 yuan banknote
1984 edition, Comorian franc coin (5 yuan denomination)
1976 Comorian Franc Gold Coin (20,000 YUAN)
Speartail fish became the symbol of the Republic of the Comoros, and the Government of the Comoros promoted the development of the country's economy by building a speartail park and developing tourism. For local fishermen, they used to catch speartail fish only occasionally, which did not have much economic value. However, when the scientific community and different museums around the world needed the fish, driven by interests, they Comorians began to fish everywhere, the coelacanth was caught in large quantities, and in 1975, the Comorian government banned fishing in order to protect this living fossil.
There is also an episode about speartails
Stay tuned to the legend of the Ratimi Fish (3)