Coelacanths are a part of Sarcopterygii or the lobe-finned fishes, the same clade as the lungfish and tetrapods, and they all possess lobed fins as opposed to rayed fins.
Coelacanth, any of the two living lobe-finned bony fishes of the genus Latimeria. Order Coelacanthiformes, to which all coelacanths belong, was thought to have died out about 66 million years ago, until a coelacanth was caught in 1938.
The coelacanth is a "passive drift feeder," moving slowly and passively near the substrate where it feeds primarily on cephalopods (cuttlefish, squid, and octopus) and fish.
Coelacanths were thought to have been extinct for 70 million years until one was found alive in 1938. What on Earth? The unexpected capture of a living coelacanth in the 1930s was “the most sensational natural history discovery” of the century.
A coelacanth thought extinct for 70 million years shocked scientists when it was rediscovered alive in 1938 off South Africa.
A New Coelacanth Species Was Hiding in a Museum for 150 Years — and It Fills a 50-Million-Year Gap Learn how new technology revealed a long-forgotten museum specimen to be a missing link in coelacanth evolution.
A New Coelacanth Species Was Hiding in a Museum for 150 Years — and It ...
Coelacanths are creatures of the deep, inhabiting cold, dark waters far from the sunlit surface. Their preferred habitat consists of rocky slopes, submarine canyons, and volcanic caves or lava tubes at depths typically ranging from 100 to 400 meters (330 to 1,300 feet).
Coelacanths are lobe-finned fish with the pectoral and anal fins on fleshy stalks supported by bones, and the tail or caudal fin is divided into three lobes, the middle one of which also includes a continuation of the notochord.