COELACANTH

Coelacanth (meaning "thorn that hollow", from the words of Greek coelia, "κοιλιά" (hollow) and acanthos, "άκανθος" (thorn), refers to the spines of fins are hollow) IPA: [he ː lə ˌ kænθ] is the name of the order (the nation) fish among others, consists of an evolutionary branch of the oldest living jawed fish. Coelacanth is estimated to have gone extinct since the late Cretaceous period 65 million years ago, until a specimen was found in eastern South Africa, in the waters of the river Chalumna 1938. Since then the coelacanth has been found in the Comoro, the waters in the Sulawesi island of Manado Tua, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar and the marine park St. Lucia in South Africa. In Indonesia, particularly around Manado, North Sulawesi, this species by local people named the king of sea fish.

Coelacanth consists of approximately 120 known species based on fossil discoveries.






Living fossils
To date, there have been two living species of coelacanth found Komoro Coelacanth, Coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae and Sulawesi (Manado), Latimeria menadoensis.

Until 1938, the fish are closely related to lung fish is considered to have been extinct since the late Cretaceous Period, about 65 million years ago. Until when a living coelacanth was caught by shark nets in advance Chalumna River estuary, South Africa in December of that year. Trawler captain who are interested in seeing these strange fish, send it to a museum in the city of East London, who was led by Ms.. Marjorie Courtney-Latimer. A iktiologis (fish expert) local, Dr. J.L.B. Smith was later to describe the fish and publish his article in the journal Nature in 1939. He gave the name to the fish Latimeria chalumnae new species, to commemorate the museum curator and the location of the discovery of the fish.

Search the location where the ancient fish that lived during the next dozen years later to get the waters of the Indian Ocean Comoro Islands west as a habitat, where several hundred individuals are estimated to live at ocean depths of more than 150 m. Outside the islands, until the 1990s a few individuals are also caught in the waters of Mozambique, Madagascar, and South Africa. But everything is still regarded as part of the population more or less the same.

In 1998, sixty years after the discovery of the coelacanth a living fossil Comoro, a king of sea fish caught fishing nets in the waters of the island of Manado Tua, North Sulawesi. This fish has been long known by local fishermen, but has not been known to exist there by the world of science. King of sea fish coelacanth Comoro physically similar, with differences in color. The king of the sea is brown, while the coelacanth Comoro blue steel.

King of sea fish is then sent to an American researcher who lived in Manado, Mark Erdmann, along with two colleagues, RL Caldwell and Moh. Kasim Moosa from LIPI. This discovery was then published in the scientific journal Nature. [1] So now people know that there is a second population of coelacanth, a separate cross the Indian Ocean and Indonesian islands as far west approximately 10,000 km. Later, based on analysis of mitochondrial DNA and isolation of populations, some researchers Indonesia and France proposed a sea king fish as a new species Latimeria menadoensis.

Two years later the group also discovered that coelacanths live in the waters of Marine Protected Areas (Marine Protected Areas) St. Lucia in South Africa. People then realize that there is still a possibility of coelacanth populations elsewhere in the world, including also in other parts of the archipelago, given that these fish live isolated in the depths of the sea, especially around volcanic islands. Until now, the taxonomic status of a new coelacanth is still debated.

In May 2007, an Indonesian fisherman caught a coelacanth off the coast of North Sulawesi Province. This fish has a size of 131 centimeters long with a weight of 51 kg when captured.