One of the most remarkable discoveries in the field of biology in the 20th Century was the recognition that coelacanths, lobe-finned fish eerily similar to land vertebrates in many ways, still roam hundreds of feet below the surface of the Indian Ocean. For a century, the fish was believed to be extinct since the time of the dinosaurs. The Intelligent Life piece referenced in the image credit has more to say on the matter (including the helpful pronunciation tip: "see-la-kanth"), and as is our custom, the Wikipedia article is here:
Coelacanth
Among other things, the Intelligent Life piece contains such fun facts as the realization that lungfish have a genome 40 times longer than that of humans. This seems odd to me, but consider:
- The notion that humans are somehow "more evolved" than other animals simply because our brains are complex is somewhere between nonsensical and silly.
- Nature doesn't much care about what seems reasonable to us.
- I haven't taken a biology class since 2007.
In any case, a heated debate arose in the mid-19th Century over whether the lungfish or the coelacanth was a more direct ancestor of modern terrestrial vertebrate life. As it turns out, genetic evidence suggests that the lungfish is closer to that branch on the evolutionary tree, but the coelacanth is still "more closely related to us than it is to a salmon or a shark." Whatever the lineage, it's a fascinating creature to watch, and our oceans are surely richer for having the coelacanths around:
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