WOMAN
DEVOURED BY COELANTHS
2006 (PIPE CLEANERS, GLUE,
FELT)
The species of fish known as the Coelacanth (see-la-kanth) predated the dinosaurs by millions of years. For a long time people thought that the fish had become extinct 65 million years ago. These fish can reach up to six feet in length and weigh on average, 176 pounds. They are the only species known to have a functioning intracranial joint, which separates the two halves of their skull. They also have bones in their lower fins, making them a sort of proto-legs. This means that they might be one of the missing links connecting us with our ancient ancestors from the sea.
In recent times, humans have realized that they were wrong to think that this species was extinct. In 1938 Marjory Courtenay-Latimer, the curator of The East London museum in South Africa, found a strange fish specimen in a local fisherman’s nets. When she took the specimen to professor James Leonard Brierley Smith, a South African ichthyologist, he immediately identified it as a coelacanth. The residents of the Comorian Island of Anjouan were confused when they heard about this rare fish because they were used to seeing the species. They referred to it as a gombessa, and the fisherman caught it by mistake sometimes. The meat of the fish was inedible so it was an undesirable catch.
Another species was discovered in 1997 in Indonesia but this species was brown rather than blue. At least three people have died in attempts to learn more about these prehistoric fish.