Living fossil fish story reported in BBC News 1 August 2007.
An Indonesian fisherman has caught a living Coelacanth fish off the coast of Sulawesi Island in Indonesia. The fish was 1.3 metres (4ft 4in) long and weighed 50kg (110lb) when caught, and has been frozen and sent for scientific tests. The Coelacanth was believed to have died out over 70 million years ago until a living specimen was found in 1938 near South Africa. Since then more than 300 specimens have been found in the same region, but in 1998 scientists were surprised to find one in Indonesia, thousands of km away. The fish has distinctive large lobe shaped fins and has sometimes been nicknamed “old four legs”.
The Coelacanth is a famous “living fossil” – a living creature that is the same as its fossils. Researchers at the University of Chicago have recently discovered a fossilised coelacanth fin in sediments at Beartooth Butte, Northern Wyoming dated as 400 million years old. They claim the fossil fin will reveal more about the evolution of the fish.
Editorial Comment: Before the first living specimen was found in 1938 the Coelacanth was believed to be an evolutionary link between fish and land animals. When the living fish was discovered it was found to be a deep sea fish that used its lobe fins to help find food on the ocean floor and shows no sign of changing into a land animal. The new fossil finding will do nothing to help the theory of evolution. The reason it was recognised as a Coelacanth fin is because the fish has not evolved. Instead it has reproduced after it kind – just as Genesis states living things were created to do.
Evidence News 15 August 2007
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