Modern coelacanths are deep-sea fishes of the family Latimeriidae. The name refers to their hollow fin spines (Greek: koilos, "hollow"; akantha, "spine"). The modern coelacanths are bigger than most fossil coelacanths and are powerful predators with heavy, mucilaginous bodies and highly mobile, limblike fins. They average 5 feet (1.5 m) in length and weigh about 100 pounds (45 kg).
Scientists assume that coelacanths appeared about 350 million years ago. They were abundant over much of the world. It was long supposed that coelacanths became extinct about 60 million years ago, but in 1938 a living member was netted in the Indian Ocean near the southern coast of Africa. Rewards were offered for more specimens, and in 1952 a second was obtained from near the Comoros Islands. Several others have been caught in that area. It was later discovered that these fishes were well known to the islanders, who considered the flesh edible when dried and salted; the rough scales were used as an abrasive.
Before these finds scientists long assumed that coelacanth was the ancestor of amphibians. Many illustrations show the evolutionary way of thinking: the coelacanth developing primitive limbs which developed themselves to full-size limbs with which the coelacanth was eventually able to conquer dry land.
But, as the evidence shows, the coelacanth has always been a coelacanth.
