Ancient Creature of the Deep

Our discussion today about the "Discovery" of the coelacanth was a good illustration of the great difficulty of doing scientific investigations of a rare and difficult to find species of fish. You demonstrated a good aptitude about hypothesizing explanations. As we learned as our discussion proceeded, the study of the coelacanth proceeds over many decades to further uncover facts about this interesting and ancient fish.

The story is more fully told in books, websites such as DINOFISH, and the PBS special Ancient Creature of the Deep. I encourage you to learn more and take the quiz posted at the Ancient creature of the Deep site.

Two great books that tell the story are A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth by Samantha Weinberg (New York: Harper Perennial, 2001) and The History of the Coelacanth Fishes by Peter Forey (New York: Chapman and Hall, 1998).