APPENDIX B 



WHY THE DISCOVERY OF THE COELACANTH 

 AROUSED SUCH WIDE INTEREST 



^NE of the main questions that we have heard many thousands of 

 times is, *Why is the Coelacanth so interesting and important?* 

 There are many things involved. 



As was explained in Chapter Two, Coelacanths as such lived over a 

 longer period than any other known type of creature, certainly of 

 vertebrates. They apparently spread over most of the earth, for fossils 

 have been found in very many places. They left apparently one of the 

 most constant and unbroken series of fossils, often almost perfect, 

 that one could desire, covering 250 million years, during which they 

 lived almost unchanged in general form. This fossil record was so 

 good that it apparently gave an index of numbers as well as distribution. 

 According to that record, from about 100 million years ago, Coelacanths 

 steadily became fewer in numbers, and the very last and comparatively 

 rare fossils occur in rock strata earlier dated at about 50 million years 

 old, but which more recent estimates put at about 70 million. Compared 

 with the age of the earth, 70 million years is not very much, but it is a 

 terrific stretch of time in comparison with life as we know it. A good 

 many profound changes have taken place on the earth during that 

 70 million years. Almost all the creatures that lived 70 million years 

 ago, both of the land and the sea, have vanished, and most of them 

 would look strange or startling if they appeared now. Most people 

 have heard of the Dinosaurs and other giant reptiles, the enormous 

 fish-eating lizards and flying reptiles, and other similar creatures of 

 past ages. It requires little imagination to picture the sensation that 

 would be caused if one of those gigantic Dinosaurs ambled into civilisa- 

 tion today. Indeed, the appearance of any piece of that long-buried past 

 is an event. While the Coelacanth is not the size of a Dinosaur, its 

 appearance, still alive, is in many ways much more startling. 



As far as scientists are concerned, this appearance of a living Coela- 

 canth was a terrific shock. All those who worked on fossils had been 

 quite confident, had indeed repeatedly said, that Coelacanths were all 

 extinct, and had been so from at least 50 million years earlier. This 

 proved them wrong, and it is good for dogmatic statements to be 

 proved wrong, at least in science, since it induces a caution that is 



