One Heck of a Fish Story
There are those who say that science is a process of testing and re-testing hypotheses, but sometimes just being in the right place at the right time is the most effective science tool.That was certainly the case for biologist Mark Erdmann. During his honeymoon in Indonesia, Mark and his new bride decided to visit—of all places—the fish market. They stepped out of a cab and into the path of a fisherman wheeling his handcart. On the cart was the rarest fish in the world—a large dappled creature known as a coelacanth. (SEE-la-kanth)
Legends that the fish's
notochord fluid brings eternal life are definitely false. But even so, coelacanths are among the world's most fascinating creatures. Although it is related to the fishes (to the lungfishes, to be precise), the coelacanth's fins don't move like a fish's fins. Instead, they move like the limbs of animals that walk on land. They even have jointed bones like our arms and legs.They also bear live young.
Coelacanths were somewhat common until 80 million years ago when they began to die out. Until recently, scientists knew them only through the fossil record. Then in 1938, a South African fisherman caught one, sending the scientific community on a feverish hunt for a population of living coelacanths. They found a small group of coelacanths living 10,000 kilometers west of Africa's Comoro Archipelago. Erdmann's discovery of a coelacanth half-way around the world indicates that perhaps a second population of coelacanths has also survived.
But Erdmann let this one get away. As he puts it, "Probably the stupidest thing I ever did was not buy that fish." Fortunately, he had taken pictures. Erdmann spent the next year talking with Indonesian fisherman trying to find another coelacanth. When a crew finally brought him one, it was barely alive. Erdmann let this one get away, too. But this time, he put on his scuba gear and swam with it. "That was," he said, "a magical experience."
Now scientists are hunting for a living population of coelacanths near the Indonesian Island of Manado Tua.
For more information, visit these Web sites
Coelacanth
http://www.amnh.org/naturalhistory/0501/0501_pick.htmlCoelacanth: The Fish Out of Time
http://www.dinofish.com/swim.htm
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