Facts about the Coelacanth
- 10
Coelacanth blood contains a unique antifreeze-like protein that allows them to survive in waters as cold as 9 degrees Celsius at depths exceeding 700 meters.
- 09
Coelacanth hearts pump blood through a single circulation loop rather than the double circulation system found in most other fish species, reflecting their primitive evolutionary design.
- 08
Living coelacanths possess a hollow, fluid-filled cavity in their skulls that comprises approximately 80 percent of their brain case volume, a unique anatomical feature among vertebrates.
- 07
Coelacanths possess a specialized rostral organ in their snout containing electroreceptive cells that detect electrical fields generated by prey movements in complete darkness.
- 06
Oil-filled fatty tissues in the coelacanth's body provide neutral buoyancy, allowing the fish to hover motionlessly in deep ocean waters without expending energy on swimming.
- 05
Adult coelacanths measure between 1.3 and 2 meters in length and can weigh up to 90 kilograms, making them among the largest lobe-finned fish alive today.
- 04
Lobed fins containing bones and muscles allow coelacanths to move with a distinctive four-limbed walking motion underwater, structurally similar to tetrapod limbs.
- 03
Coelacanth eggs develop inside the mother's body for up to 13 months, making them among the longest-gestating fish species known to science.
- 02
In 1938, a fishing trawler off South Africa caught a living coelacanth, a species scientists believed extinct for 66 million years.
- 01
The coelacanth's genome contains 2.8 billion base pairs, with approximately 23,000 protein-coding genes similar to human DNA sequences.