Approximately 420 million years
The earliest known coelacanth fossils date to the Devonian period. Fossil forms were once far more diverse than the two living species known today.
Coelacanths · Deep time
History and Evolution
The coelacanth story links the fossil record, vertebrate evolution and one of the most important living-fish discoveries in modern natural history.
The fossil lineage
Evolution did not stop
The scientific story is not that coelacanths stopped evolving. It is that a distinctive lobe-finned lineage survived while many relatives disappeared.
What the fossils show
Coelacanths connect the history of vertebrate evolution, specialised fins, ancient marine and freshwater environments and the survival of a deep-marine lineage.
The 1938 South African discovery
Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer
On 22 December 1938, the East London Museum curator noticed an extraordinary blue fish among a trawl catch brought ashore in South Africa.
J.L.B. Smith
Smith recognised that the fish resembled coelacanth fossils believed to represent an extinct group. He later described the living species as Latimeria chalumnae.
The name
The species name honours Courtenay-Latimer and the Chalumna River, near the place where the fish was caught.
The second living species
Latimeria chalumnae is the African or West Indian Ocean coelacanth. Latimeria menadoensis is the Indonesian coelacanth. They are related but genetically distinct modern animals.
Explore responsibly
Keep sensitive locations protected and treat the coelacanth and its deep-water habitat as a conservation priority.