For 60 years this was presumed to be the only Coelacanth population in existence. The original discovery of the Coelacanth in 1938 is still considered to be the zoological find of the century. This 'living fossil' comes from a lineage of fishes that was thought to have been extinct since the time of the dinosaurs. There is another reason why the discovery of the Coelacanth has caused so much excitement. We now believe that Lungfishes are the closest living relative of tetrapods, but the Coelacanth may still provide answers to some very interesting evolutionary questions.
Coelacanths are quite different from all other living fishes.
They have an extra lobe on their tail, paired lobed fins, and a vertebral column that is not fully developed. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Coelacanth however, is that it has paired fins which move in a similar fashion to our arms and legs. When the coelacanth from Sulawesi was first discovered, the only obvious differences between it and the coelacanths from the Comoros Islands was the colour. The Comoros coelacanths are renowned for their steel blue colour, whereas specimens from the 'new' population are reported to be brown. The discovery of a new species of coelacanth in Sulawesi, opens up the possibility that coelacanths may be more widespread and abundant than was previously assumed.