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distinction for their descendants. The Coelacanths were quite 

 different. They were tougher. It is not yet certain whether the 

 first Coelacanths of 300 million years ago originated in fresh 

 water or in the sea. It is often quite a problem to decide this 

 particular point for any one fish. Fossils generally result when 

 animals are buried in mud which later hardens to rock. This can 

 happen, for example, at the mouth of a river which brings down 

 quantities of mud and silt. In South Africa at least, when rivers 

 come down in flood, fresh-water fishes are often carried out to 

 sea and killed. If that happened in those far-off days, as it probably 

 often did, near the mouth of such a river there could be laid down 

 beds containing fish fossils, some at least fresh-water types, 

 together with typical marine organisms such as shells. If no other 

 fossils of these particular fishes happen to have been found else- 

 where, they could easily be listed as marine. What has been estab- 

 lished is that Coelacanths spread and lived over a great part of the 

 earth, some definitely in swamps, some probably in rivers and 

 estuaries and some in the sea. Some wonderful fossils have been 

 found. For example, during quite recent excavations for a Univer- 

 sity Library at Princeton, U.S.A., some shales were encountered 

 that were the remains of a swamp of about 190 million years ago. 

 These contained an average of no less than twelve Coelacanth 

 fossils per square foot. That swamp was certainly swarming with 

 Coelacanths. I wish I could go back there and fish for Coelacanths 

 in a Triassic swamp with a bent pin and worms as I have done for 

 Kurpers. I wonder if there were suitable worms then. I am foolish 

 enough to hope that somewhere there may still be such a swamp, 

 and I wonder who will be the first to find it. 



Looking back to the time before it was known that Coelacanths 

 were still living, it is astounding to see that nobody seems to have 

 realised the wonder of the Coelacanths, even as they were then 

 known. There was so much that was remarkable about them even 

 then. For one thing, the fossil series showed them to have had, 

 from the very beginning so long ago, important characteristics, 

 like jaws and overlapping scales, far in advance of their time, char- 

 acters that are obviously good for survival, because even the most 

 modern fishes have hardly improved on the Coelacanth pattern. 

 As a distinct and characteristic line they survived longer than any 

 other type of vertebrate, all unmistakable Coelacanths, living from 



