ScienceA-Z AnimalsA Trawler Hauled Up A Blue Fish In 1938 That Science Believed Extinct For 65 Million Years
A 1938 catch of a fish thought extinct for 65 million years, identified by a self-taught museum curator, rewrote what scientists knew about evolution and survival.
When a South African trawler captain called his museum curator friend to look over an unusual catch in 1938, neither of them had any idea the strange blue fish flopping on deck would rewrite what scientists thought they knew about extinction.
A South African trawler captain hauled up a large steely-blue fish in 1938 that scientists had believed extinct for 65 million years, known as the coelacanth.
It was identified by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a 32-year-old museum curator with no formal science training, who sent a sketch to an ichthyologist at Rhodes University.
Researchers had to wait 14 more years to find a second specimen, and later DNA evidence challenged the popular idea that the coelacanth was a simple living fossil.
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