Coelacanth Trivia Questions

The first living coelacanth was caught in 1938 off South Africa; earlier fossils were known but not the living fish.

Coelacanth fossils date to the Cretaceous period, and the species was believed extinct until a live specimen was caught off South Africa in 1938.

Coelacanth is a side branch of lobe-finned fish; the direct ancestors of tetrapods were more closely related to lungfish.

Coelacanth is a lobe-finned fish (Sarcopterygii), distinct from ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii) which include salmon and tuna.

Coelacanth is a deep-sea fish, living at depths of 150–700 meters off the coasts of Africa and Indonesia, not in freshwater.

Coelacanth possesses an intracranial joint, a hinge between the front and back of the skull, which increases its gape for feeding.

Coelacanth belongs to the Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish), a group that includes lungfish and the ancestors of land vertebrates, not Actinopterygii.

A 2021 study in Current Biology used scale growth rings to estimate that coelacanth can reach nearly 100 years of age.