Newly Discovered Rebel Coelacanth
by Christine Dell’Amore
The coelacanth (pronounced SEE-la-kanth) is a primitive, slow-moving fish that’s sometimes called a living fossil, because it apparently existed largely unchanged for 320 million years. There are 40 known coelacanth species, 2 of which are alive today.
All other known coelacanths have broad, rounded tails designed for slow bursts of motion. But Rebellatrix had a huge, forked tail and streamlined body that likely allowed the ancient fish to cruise long distances and hunt prey at high speeds, said study leader Andrew Wendruff, a biologist at the University of Alberta in Canada. According to Wendruff, the team named the discovery Rebellatrix because, like a true rebel, “it does everything a coelacanth should not do…”
(Read the full story: National Geo)
(images: T- Illustration of Rebellatrix by Michael Skrepnic; ML & MR - Photos courtesy Andrew Wendruff and Mark Wilson; BR - the modern extant Coelacanth photo by Laurent Ballesta, National Geographic)
