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natives had got odd Coelacanths over a very long time, and it will not 

 be surprising if there are still more species in those waters. 



Why is this discovery so important ? It is a stern warning to scientists 

 not to be too dogmatic. Not only is there a Coelacanth still in existence ; 

 there are at least two species still doggedly carrying on their ancient 

 line. It is not unlikely that more will be found in other seas. We have 

 in the past assumed that we have mastery not only of the land but of the 

 sea as well. We have not. Life goes on there just as it did from the 

 beginning. Man's influence is as yet but a passing shadow. This dis- 

 covery means that we may find other fishlike creatures supposedly 

 extinct still living in the sea. Some may be even more important than 

 the Coelacanth itself. 



Another important aspect of this discovery is that it has established 

 the uncanny accuracy of the work of the palaeontologists, for their 

 deductions about the Coelacanths from fragmentary fossils — a bit 

 here and another bit there — have now been proved correct. It is 

 therefore justifiable to assume that comparable work on the fossils of 

 other forms of life is equally sound, and it gives us confidence in the 

 views of scientists on the procession of life. 



I am asked repeatedly what we may expect to prove with this fish. 

 I am exhausted from strain after my hurried flight to the Comores, and 

 wearied by the attempt to cope with a host of those who wish to tear 

 something of my thoughts for the many millions to whom 'Coelacanth' 

 is now almost a household word. It is difficult to co-ordinate the chaotic 

 thoughts that flood my brain. I have scarcely had time to do more than 

 satisfy myself that it is a Coelacanth, that it is a new genus and species, 

 probably a new family; and that most of the flesh and intestines are 

 intact. 



Brain Destroyed 



All the soft parts of the first Coelacanth were lost. The native who 

 caught the second one beat it on the head. The man who got the 

 fish from him left it to his native sailors to cut for salting, and they 

 sliced the creature open from snout to tail ; most of the brain and other 

 soft parts of the head are gone. All this, however, does not perturb me. 

 It cannot be stressed enough that one most important aim has been 

 achieved. We have established where some Coelacanths live, and it is 

 only a matter of time until we get other specimens. 



One thing of which we know nothing at all is the nature of the soft 

 parts of those very early creatures 300 million and more years ago. 

 There is every reason to believe that the early Coelacanths may have 

 had soft parts at least something like those of other creatures of that 

 dim past; and since Coelacanths retained their hard parts almost 



