The Coelacanth aka 'The Living Fossil Fish' Quiz

Answer: museum curator

Miss Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer worked as a curator at the East London museum in South Africa, a most unusual position to be held by a woman, especially a teenager. She often went looking for suitable specimens and spotted the unusual fish, which had been trawled near the mouth of the River Chalumna, on Captain Goosen's boat, the Nerine. Realising the importance of saving the specimen for scientific research, she preserved it as best she could at the museum until it could be formally identified.

Answer: hollow spine

Coelacanths don't actually have a spinal column or a backbone as such, they have a notochord which is made up of gristly cartilage. Coincidently, dissection has shown that the notochord of the Coelacanth is indeed hollow and filled with an oily substance, but this is not why it was named as such. Fossilised remains hadn't brought to light much information as to the internal workings of this fish, but some clearly showed hollow fin spines. These hollow spines were actually the reason behind the derivation of the name.

Answer: ichthyology

Entomology is the study of insects, ornithology is the study of birds and herpetology is the study of reptiles and amphibians.

Answer: South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity

The Department of Ichthyology at Rhodes University was renamed The JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology after Smith's death in 1968. It was decided to change it once again in 2001 to the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity to reflect the work being done not only in the field of fishes, but also marine conservation in general.

Answer: True

This was small by comparison to other Coelacanths which have since been caught. Some have been known to grow over 6 feet in length and weigh in excess of 200 pounds. The female is generally much larger than the male, but gender is very difficult to identify accurately purely by external observation.

Answer: 8

Coelacanths have 2 dorsal, 2 pectoral, 2 pelvic, 1 anal and 1 caudal fin. The trilobite tail fin is unknown in any other living fish, but the paired pectoral and pelvic fins are extremely unusual too.

Answer: False

In fact Antarctica is the only continent where these fossils haven't been found. The reason that Coelacanths were once believed to be extinct in the wild is because all known fossil remains are thought to predate the Cretaceous period.

Answer: up to 3 years

Studies have yet to determine the exact length of gestation, but estimates of up to 3 years have been speculated. It is also thought that they might not even reach sexual maturity and reproductive capability until they are at least 10 years old, which is one of the reasons why there is such concern over their future.

Answer: oviparous

Both ovoviviparous and viviparous reproduction methods result in the parent giving birth to live young.

Answer: True

More than twenty fully formed pups have been found inside one Coelacanth. Examination has revealed that no muscle fibre or flesh of any sort had been taken in as a food substance in the unborn pups, thus dispelling this belief.

Answer: an orange

Each egg weighs approximately 320g and looks uncannily like a haggis.

Answer: 1%

The brain is remarkably small in comparison to other fish of similar size. Research on unborn, juvenile pups has shown that their brains occupy almost all of the cranial cavity.

Answer: old fourlegs

JLB Smith wrote a book entitled 'Old Fourlegs - The Story of the Coelacanth' about his fascination for this fish. Once the Coelacanth had been studied it was found that the pelvic and pectoral fins of the Coelacanth have an internal skeleton. It was generally thought that this fish had once used those tough, paddle-like fins to walk along the seabed out onto dry land. It was even suggested that this fish could have been a direct ancestor of man, but neither of these statements were ever proven and it is now widely accepted that this was not the case.

Answer: pedunculated

The other answers might sound equally plausible, but I'm afraid I made them up.

Answer: rostral

The rostral organ is a gel-filled gland and is thought to work in a similar manner to the ampullae of Lorenzini pores in sharks by picking up electrical charges emitted by other marine creatures.

Answer: False

The metabolic rate of these fish is one of the lowest known for any animal. Much of their day is spent resting in caves in small groups at depths of between 100m - 700m. They don't rest on the sea floor as originally thought, but use a gentle sculling action to remain hovering in the water. They go off, generally alone, on feeding forays at night.

Answer: king of the sea

Coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae is known to the local people of the Comoros as Gombessa, sometimes pronounced Kombessa.

Answer: colour

Coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae is metallic blue in colour, whereas Coelacanth Latimeria menadoensis is brown. Both have lighter, random blotches which has been a useful method of identifying individuals as part of ongoing conservation studies.

Answer: False

Examination of stomach contents reveal that the Coelacanth feeds mainly on a marine animal diet.

Answer: all of these

It was found that after release most did not survive the journey back into deep water and died from a combination of asphyxiation and stress. Fishermen are now being issued with 'Deep Water Release Kits', an invention credited to Jerome Hamlin based on an original design concept by Ray Waldner.

The kit comprises a small plastic bag attached to a blunt hook, fitting neatly into a handy container. The hook is looped over the lower jaw and stones are placed into the plastic. The fish is then lowered gently into the water and, with the aid of the weights, it's returned safely to the depths without having to use up excess energy. Once back on the sea floor the fish can release itself easily and swim away.