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million years ago. There is, then, at least a hope that the soft parts of the 

 modern Coelacanth may also be little changed from those of earlier 

 times, and from study we may be able to deduce something of the 

 finer details of the earliest vertebrate types. 



There has been a good deal of controversy about the origin of the 

 important oil deposits in the earth. Some scientists consider that they 

 had a purely inorganic origin, being formed by the action of pressure 

 and moisture on carbon. Others consider it at least as likely that the 

 oil resulted from the action of heat and pressure on great numbers of 

 oily fishes, possibly killed in some upheaval of nature. It is certainly 

 interesting that the Coelacanth is oily, very oily indeed, and a study of 

 that oil may throw some light on this whole question. 



The development of embryos is a most fascinating study, for it has 

 been observed that many show characters of the earliest forms of life 

 from which the creatures have evolved. For example, at certain stages 

 the human embryo has gill-slits in the throat, and a tail, indicating 

 our fishy origin. 



One rather wonderful discovery was the fossil of a fairly large 

 Coelacanth with remains of two others, both very much smaller, 

 situated near the hind part of the belly region. That could mean merely 

 the fossils of three Coelacanths, one big and two small, but it could 

 also have meant that these two smaller ones were the well-developed 

 but still unborn young, indicating that the Coelacanth brought forth 

 the young alive. If this was the case, it would mean that the study of 

 the embryo in the living Coelacanth would likely have enabled scientists 

 to gain some knowledge of life still earlier than the origin of Coelacanths, 

 a wonderful possibility that we all have cherished. As Coelacanths 

 have been caught one by one, so we have gone on hoping that each 

 would be a female, especially one with unborn young. By some curious 

 trick all the first were males ; then came an immature female ; and now, 

 finally, a gravid female, but she has eggs, not embryos. This takes 

 away some of our hopes, but not all, for the embryo develops in the 

 egg, probably in a case like that of the sharks and rays, and there will 

 be much to be learnt when we can find these. 



