The primitive-looking fish, called the coelacanth (SEEL-uh-kanth) was thought to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But in 1938, a South African museum related dude found this fish in a fishing trawler and soon everyone was on fire. Biologists came together to discuss about this fish (c'on it's jus a fuckin' fish~!~) and questioned how this bizarre lobe-finned fish fits into the evolution of land animals.
You know what? we all are descendants of this creature.. T-T sad but true, we're once roaming freely in the ocean, falling prey to sharks and whales, and thus our brave ancestors made it to the land.
Anyway..
Many scientists believe that the unique characteristics of the coelacanth represent an early step in the evolution of fish to terrestrial four-legged animals like amphibians.
The most striking feature of this "living fossil" is its paired lobe fins that extend away from its body like legs and move in an alternating pattern, like a trotting horse.
Coelacanths are elusive, deep-sea creatures, living in depths up to 2,300 feet (700 meters) below the surface. They can be huge, reaching 6.5 feet (2 meters) or more and weighing 198 pounds (90 kilograms). Scientists estimate they can live up to 60 years or more.
I have read about this animals when I was in secondary school, and one thing that fascinates me the most is its name and its feature. Its name is super hard to pronounce for a young mind, and its feature that resembles a land animal really baffles me. What's more, the National Geographic narrator was saying "this elusive animal was once thought to have gone extinct"... and the subtitle "ikan ini pernah dijangka telah pupus oleh saintis" and I was like "WOWWW"... cuz it was discovered in the year 1938, and yet not much of us really know about this fish. Try ask any teacher in school or lecturers, bet they don't know this PREHISTORIC FISH. That's the point! PREHISTORIC!!! It is not included in our syllabus, and we were taught about dinosaurs, the dodo bird, the tasmanian tiger, mammoth, yet no one ever mention about Coelacanth~!
Hence I was really on fire about this fish, knowing something that most people don't know, and c'on, it's PREHISTORIC!!! We can trace the ancestral journey of mankind via DNA analysis of this fucking fish, to see how much our DNA differ from it, and draw up an evolution journey of all land animals, all from this bizzare fish. Anyway I'm probably dreaming cuz not many of us even know where to find this fish. there are two places in this world where you can find this fish. Ain't gonna tell ya, google it yourself :P
This creature is considered endangered as there are only several hundreds left in the wild. We have to stop polluting the ocean if we are to stop another prehistoric creature from disappearing from the surface of the planet.
Shit I'm supposed to blog about religion just now but I saw this coelacanth thing on Nat Geo so... fuck it
Malcolm
If this breed of fish is MILLIONS of years old then why haven't these current day existing fish evolved, but others have?
ReplyDeleteWhy are there not any other fish out there that looks similar but with slight differences?
Evolved offspring should have only slight changes and be able to exist in the same way for millions of years, right?
Why are there such HUGE gaps in the differences between species?
I am saying that if one prehistoric fish is found and is still alive then where are at least one of it's prehistoric evolved offspring that are the same but have small differences? I only see completely different species of fish without hardly any similarities.
in response to each of your questions...
ReplyDeletethis is a modern version of the coelacanth, it has evolved since prehistoric times, however this fish more closely resembles our shared ancestor than we do as humans.
offspring are a genetic combination of both parents, each individual varies slightly in different ways (just like you and your neighbor), but you are still humans beings
thirdly, why would you expect to have full fossil records, especially for invertebrates, there are so many outside factors that had to be just right to fossilize a species' remains...that is why there is not a step by step model to show each break in a new lineage of evolution
Macro Evolution is BS.
ReplyDeleteMicro evolution is much more plausible. A red fish and a yellow fish can be related. But a bug and an elephant. I don't think so.