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Living fossil roams the seas
July 13, 2005Fossil' fish coelacanth, first dragged up along the coast of South Africa in 1938, having been considered extinct for 65 million years. Because of its close resemblance to land animals, it has attracted attention to the subject of a 'missing link' between tetrapods and humans. Dr. Chris Amemiya will be presenting his work on the generation and utilization of genomic resources for the Indonesian coelacanth on Wednesday 13th July at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Main Meeting in Barcelona [session A5].
These genomic resources make it possible to investigate extended gene regions in order to analyse evolutionary relationships with other animals. Genes of particular interest have been those involved in embryonic development and immunity. "There are two questions we are trying to answer", explains Amemiya. "How different are the coelacanth's genes from those of other fishes and tetrapods? And can the species be useful as a tool for vertebrate comparative genomics?"
Society for Experimental Biology
Primordial fish had rudimentary fingers
Tetrapods, the first four-legged land animals, are regarded as the first organisms that had fingers and toes. Now researchers at Uppsala University can show that this is wrong. Using medical x-rays, they found rudiments of fingers in the fins in fossil Panderichthys, the "transitional animal," which indicates that rudimentary fingers developed considerably earlier than was previously thought.
Ancient antibody molecule offers clues to how humans evolved allergies
Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have discovered how evolution may have lumbered humans with allergy problems.
Coelacanth fossil sheds light on fin-to-limb evolution
A 400 million-year-old fossil of a coelacanth fin, the first finding of its kind, fills a shrinking evolutionary gap between fins and limbs.
Mobile DNA part of evolution's toolbox
The repeated copying of a small segment of DNA in the genome of a primeval fish may have been crucial to the transition of ancient animals from sea to land, or to later key evolutionary changes in land vertebrates.
Swedish-Chinese research team uncovers the history of the nose
Our ancestors had two nostrils, one front and one back, but no opening on the palate or in the throat. They could smell, but not breathe with their nose. How did our nose evolve? Per Ahlberg, Uppsala university, and Zhu Min, department of Vertebrate Paleontology in Beijing, China, has now found a fossil that explains the history of the nose.
More Coelacanth Current Events and Coelacanth News Articles
 | Fossil Fish Found Alive: Discovering the Coelacanth (Carolrhoda Photo Books) by Sally M. Walker |
 | A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth by Samantha Weinberg, Fourth Estate The coelacanth (see-lo-canth) is no ordinary fish. Five feet long, with luminescent eyes and limb like fins, this bizarre creature, presumed to be extinct, was discovered in 1938 by an amateur icthyologist who recognized it from fossils dating back 400 million years. The discovery was immediately dubbed the "greatest scientific find of the century," but the excitement that ensued was even more... |
 | Cryptozoology and the Investigation of Lesser-Known Mystery Animals This anthology compiles chapters by several investigators, looking at mystery animals that are rarely mentioned in cryptozoological literature, or in some cases are brand new to cryptozoology. Some turn out to be hoaxes or misidentifications, some can not yet be distinctly discerned from a background of cultural folklore, but others may very well point to unrecognized species awaiting zoological... |
 | Living Fossil: The Story of the Coelacanth by Keith Stewart Thomson |
 | Mystery Fish: Secrets of the coelacanth (On My Own Science) by Sally M. Walker |
 | History of the Coelacanth Fishes by Peter Forey This book evaluates the reputation of the coelacanth, presenting up-to-date accounts of the structure of fossil coelacanths, and suggests a family history to show that there have been subtle but significant changes in coelacanth... |
 | Coelacanth: The Living Fossil (Weird Wonders of the Deep) by Valerie J. Weber |
| A coelacanth fish from the Upper Devonian of Ohio (Scientific publications of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, new ser) by Bobb Schaeffer | |
| The coelacanth by Rosalind Brackenbury | |
| The Golden Book of Natural Science Bunting to Coelacanth by Herbert S (ed) Zim |
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