Coelacanths, Living Fossils of the Sea

[Music] once known only from fossils the coelacanth was thought to have gone extinct around 65 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous during the great extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs and yet in 1938 one was found of the coast of South Africa alive a fish almost entirely unchanged since the days of dinosaurs this discovery represented one of the most significant natural history discoveries of recent times living at depths of around 200 metres down in the Twilight Zone of the ocean they are found around the steep rocky slopes of volcanic islands venturing forth from their lava rock caves at night to feed being passive drift feeders they move slow and feed on cephalopods as well as smaller fish believed by many to have no living relatives the coelacanth is a truly unique species they're the only living vertebrates with a jointed skull that swings upward to greatly increase the gape of the mouth their limb like pectoral fins are also unique as they are internally supported by bone a feature not found in many other fish they use them in a paddle like fashion as if they are walking through the water column these unusual features have led to the coelacanth evolutionary history becoming a matter of controversy but most experts argue it is an early ancestor of modern day bony fish with lung fishes being its closest relative [Music] with fins so closely resembling limbs coelacanths demonstrate the evolutionary pathway that saw animal life begin to dominate land the site of these two metre long 200 pound living fossils drifting in the deep is an ominous sight indeed with only two known coelacanth populations in the world both haven't been isolated for millions of years they're low numbers have led to a classification of critically endangered and without careful management of human activities the species could be lost forever after having survived unchanged for millions of years [Music]

Channel: Natural World Facts

Views: 375,091

Rating: 4.9410982 out of 5

Keywords: Coelacanth, oldest living fish, extinct fish discovered, extinct animal discovered, nat geo wild, documentary, DinoFish : Coelecanth, Coelecanth video, Finding the Coelecanth, natural world facts, coelacanth animal crossing, coelacanth fish, coelacanth animal crossing new leaf, coelacanth swiming, coelacanth video, ancient fish, monster fish discovered, extinct animal found alive, living dinosaur, coelacanth footage, animal crossing, real life animal crossing, fishing

Id: __Woo6L1bl0

Length: 2min 39sec (159 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 25 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Ellius_Beeus]

The coelacanth is one of my favourite fish, thanks for sharing! I'd also love to see more, do to have anything on the lungfish?

[u/Fearthafluff]

BLAST FROM THE PAST

[u/mrstickyy]

thats a solid 15,000 bells right there my guy

[u/TopOfBullshit]

Only reason I know this is because of Relicanth

[u/lrichards321]

This is a little video I made about my favourite deep sea creature. I have a couple other videos on some similar deep sea creatures, so let me know if you'd like them posted here :)

[u/JoyfulDeath]

Howcome it is so chill with humans so close to them?

[u/JAproofrok]

To be fair, it wasn’t “thought to be extinct for 65 million years”. It just had a missing bit of fossil record.

Not exactly like losing your favorite hat for ten years and missing it.