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Coelacanthiformes
Temporal range: Early Devonian - Holocene
West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinistia
Order: Coelacanthiformes
Huxley, 1861
Families
  • Whiteiidae
  • Rebellatricidae
  • Coelacanthidae
  • Suborder Latimerioidei
    • Mawsoniidae
    • Latimeriidae

Coelacanthiformes (meaning hollow spine), referred to as coelacanths is a clade of lobe-finned fish that has lived from the early Devonian to the present. Today, coelacanths primarily in the Indian Ocean and in Egypt, South Africa, and Indonesia.

There are five types of fish: ray-finned fish, cartilaginous fish, placoderms, jawless fish, and lobe-finned fish. The lungfish clades and the coelacanths are the only remaining lobe-finned fish (minus tetrapods). Different species of coelacanth include Mawsonia, and the extant genus Latimeria.

Coelacanths are arguably the best known example of a Lazarus taxon (A group of animals believed to be extinct, but is later discovered to be alive), as the order was originally believed to have gone extinct in the K-PG extinction, 66 million years ago. However in 1938 a fisherman in South Africa contacted scientists about a fish he had caught, which was later found to be a living species of Coelacanth, proving that the order was not extinct as previously believed.

In the Media[]

800px-Dossier Coel

Ark: Survival Evolved Coelacanth

  • An Animated Coelacanth was seen swimming past some ammonites from the 4th episode of the 4 part PBS Documentary The Dinosaurs!.
  • The Coelacanth was featured in a NOVA Documentary.
  • A Coelacanth was seen on the EYEWITNESS Documentary “Prehistoric Life”.
  • A pair of Coelacanths were seen in a Tank from Disney’s 41st Animated feature Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
  • A life sized model of a Coelacanth is briefly seen in the Oxford Museum at the end of the final episode of Walking with Beasts.
  • Coelacanth appeared in the National Geographic documentary Dinofish.
  • An ancient Pokémon from the Ruby and Sapphire games named Relicanth was inspired in terms of design and name by the Coelacanth.
  • A Digimon called Coelamon is also inspired heavily by the ancient Coelacanth & was seen in Digimon Adventure 02 & the 2020 Reboot.
  • Many Coelacanths appear in the Ghibli movie Ponyo in the background.

Gallery[]