Speartail fish
Latimeria chalumnae
Bony fish order Coelacanthidae
Another episode
In 2010, at the Shanghai World Expo, a specimen of coelacanth (speartail) was exhibited in the Comoros Pavilion, and at that time, some media reported that the Comoros Pavilion exhibited a "fossil" of coelacanth. This claim is false, and although coelacanths are called living fossils, specimens of coelacanths cannot be confused with coelacanth fossils.
At the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, visitors view a 1-meter-long specimen of coelacanth in the Comoros National Pavilion (Photo by Zhang Chi)
(Image source network)
The egg size of the lattimah is the size of an orange (orange in the lower right corner)
(Image from The biology of Latimeria chalumnae and evolution of coelacanths)
Ratimi fish appear in Indonesia - Manadorathi mai fish
For nearly 70 years since the discovery of the Ratima in 1938, scientists have believed that echinoflora live only in the waters off eastern Africa. However, in 1997, nature once again surprised the world, 10,000 kilometers east of the east coast of Africa, 10,000 kilometers east of Indonesia's Manado (manado), the Ratimi fish appeared again, the relevant news was once again published in the British "Nature" magazine, and the Ratimi fish once again attracted people's attention.
The existing coelacanth distribution area is the Comorian coelacanth, the pink area is the Indonesian coelacanth
On September 18, 1997, Mark V. Erdmann, a young biologist at the University of Berkeley, and his wife, Arnaz, honeymooned in the Indonesian city of Manado in Sulawesi. They saw a strange fish in a market, and Mark, upon closer inspection, recognized it as a speartail fish, but unfortunately they couldn't buy the fish, just took a picture. After returning home, Mark put the photo on the Internet, which attracted the attention of an expert who suggested that Mark go to Indonesia again to confirm the authenticity of the discovery.
Reminded by the experts, Mark realized its important academic research value, and the Couple then returned to Indonesia and visited the fishermen of the local fishing villages one by one, and several fishermen said that they had caught the fish after looking at the photo. Mark pleaded with the fishermen to inform him when they caught the fish again in the future. On 30 July 1998, another Ratima was caught by local fishermen, 1.2 metres long and weighing 29 kg. The fish lived for 6 hours, allowing scientists to record its true color and the movement of its fins with a camera. Mark began to think that the Indonesian speartail was only somewhat different from the Comorian speartail, the Indonesian speartail was brown-grey, and the Comorian speartail was steel blue, so it was initially concluded that it was the same species as the Comorian speartail. Known locally in Indonesia as raja laut meaning King of the Sea, Mark published a report in the British journal Nature titled "Indonesia Discovers 'King of the Sea'"
Later DNA test results showed that there were certain genetic differences between them. In 1999, Pauyaud et al. officially named it Latimeria menadoensis (meaning The Rathimi fish found by Manado, also known as the Manado Rathimi fish, or the Indonesian Echidna). Mark thought that the Indonesian Latima was the same species as the Comorola Timi and missed the opportunity to name it, but he was lucky to be the first to discover the fish. In 2005, molecular biology studies proved that the Manadoratimi and Charannaratimi fish had diverged between 30 million and 40 million years ago.
Map of two species of Ratimai fish (image from Wikipedia)
Does China have coelacanths?
The existing coelacanth is not distributed in our country, and the specimens of coelacanth in our museum are mainly donated by the Government of the Comoros.
But don't think that coelacanth has nothing to do with our country, then what is the relationship?
On April 11, 2012, the journal Nature Communications published an article by Zhu Min, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, introducing the fossil head of coelacanth fish they found. This discovery pushes forward the record of "anatomically modern coelacanth" by about 17 million years, providing a more accurate reference time for studying the early rapid differentiation of coelacanths and subsequent evolutionary stagnation, and further supporting the hypothesis that meatfin fish originated in paleogeographic regions of southern China.
Do you understand? That is to say, Chinese scholars have found the earliest "anatomical sense of coelacanth" fossils, located in Zhaotong, Yunnan, through research, the geological age has been determined as the early Devonian Prague period (about 410 million years ago). Through the study of two fossil specimens of the skull of the coelacanth, it was confirmed that it belonged to the "anatomically modern type coelacanth" and pushed its fossil record forward by 17 million years. This discovery fills a gap in the fossil record of early Devonian echinos in southern China and reaffirms the hypothesis that paleogeographic regions of southern China are the center of origin of finfish.
Why is it said to be confirmed again? That's because China's Yunnan is an important source of the world's early meat fin fossils, since the 1980s, Chinese scholars have found Yang's fish, strange fish, spotted scale fish, porous fish, Miman fish, butterfly pillar fish, Ken's fish, ghost fish and other early meat fin fossils in Yunnan, therefore, southern China is considered to be the origin center of meat fin fish. But Devonian spiny fish fossils have never been found in southern China. Previously, the only record of coelacanth in the Early Devonian was an incomplete fossil tooth bone from Australia. Therefore, the discovery of coelacanth fossils in southern China once again confirms the hypothesis that southern China is the center of origin of finfish.
To illustrate another point, the fossils of coelacanth found in Yunnan, China, were named by Chinese scholars as Yunnan foramen fish, and the Australian coelacanth is called the first coelacanth, both of which belong to the early Devonian coelacanth.
A novel about coelacanths
In 2005, French writer Christine Adamo created a novel based on the true story of the discovery of coelacanth, Chinese translated as "Requiem for Coelacanth", the storyline of the novel is unfolded: In South Africa, in 1938, fishermen caught a very rare fish, and Helen Arandelle, a young female librarian at the local museum, brought the fish back to the museum for research and found that the fish had the characteristics of a coelacanth. Coelacanth is an ancient fish that was 400 million years old and has long been considered an important part of the evolution of aquatic animals to terrestrial vertebrates. People had only seen fossils of such fish before, and they had always thought that they had become extinct tens of millions of years ago. If this is really a coelacanth, it would be a major discovery in evolutionary research.
As a result, the world's science rushed to catch coelacanth for research, but one by one, the scientists involved in the study of coelacanth died mysteriously. In France, 1997, young Mary heard of his death while finding her father, whom she had never met. Her father was a brilliant researcher, and all he left behind was a thick stack of documents on coelacanths.
Mary began to investigate the whole thing, feeling more and more confused about her father's death, that all those who approached the fish had been murdered, that a total of six people had died for it, and that it was the difference of opinion of the scientists that finally led to the murder? Or is there something more magical behind it? If you want to know all this, then read this novel for yourself and look for the answer in the book!