A LIVING FOSSIL^ 



(Latimeria chalumnae J. L. B. Smith) 



By J. L. B. Smith 

 Rhodes University College, Orahamstown, South Africa 



[With 8 plates] 



Scientific discovery rarely follows a smooth and orderly course. 

 Like most natural processes it proceeds spasmodically, and important 

 results frequently come only after long-drawn-out, exhausting, and 

 apparently fruitless endeavor, sometimes even almost by what ap- 

 pears to be a lucky chance. Scientific discoveries may roughly be di- 

 vided into two main classes : Those which affect the material welfare 

 of mankind (e. g., the existence and action of bacteria) and those 

 which represent merely an addition to knowledge. There has re- 

 cently been discovered near East London, South Africa, a very re- 

 markable fish which represents an event of the latter sort. The 

 interest it has aroused is on account of the great scientific importance 

 which attaches to it. It is a living link with a past so remote as to 

 be almost beyond the grasp of the ordinary mind. 



In order that the full significance of the discovery may be appre- 

 ciated, we may recapitulate briefly a few outlines of the theory 

 of evolution. By methods which space does not permit to be ex- 

 plained here, scientists have been able to arrive at an approximate 

 time scale for the comparatively recent part of the history of the earth. 

 According to that scale, life, animal life of sorts, was present in at 

 least some waters of the earth 400 million years ago. We do not 

 know exactly when or where or how that life originated. In the rocks 

 are traces which to experts represent vanished forms. Most of this 

 evidence is in the form of what are known as "fossils." These are the 

 petrified remains of creatures which died in such fashion that their 

 bodies were covered by mud or sand or sludge which to some extent 

 preserved the main structures. At some later date the embedding 

 material was converted by various processes, e. g., pressure, infiltration, 

 etc., into rock. Those records in the rocks are to the paleontologist 



1 Reprinted by permission from The Cape Naturalist, vol. 1, No. 6, July 1939. 



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