You may not have heard of fish with four limbs.
In 1938, a fishing boat was fishing near the Comoro Islands near Madagascar, and caught a very strange-looking fish.
First of all, this fish is very large, one and a half meters long and weighs nearly a hundred pounds. Then, there were hard scales growing all over its body, which seemed to glow with a purple metallic sheen.
However, the strangest thing is its appearance. Its tail is completely different from ordinary fish and is divided into three pages. Fishermen have never seen this kind of fish, but it must be rare and of certain research value.
So, they informed Miss Latimer, the curator of the East London Museum in South Africa at the time, about their discovery.
However, after Latimer saw this fish, he looked through almost all the information, but could not find any information about this strange fish.
She had no choice but to draw the appearance of the fish and wrote a letter to convey the situation to Professor James Smith, a fish research expert.
When Professor Smith saw the appearance of this fish, he felt that it was not simple. After all, he usually came into contact with fish the most. This strange fish was very different from ordinary fish.
Therefore, Professor Smith determined that this fish was probably a prehistoric fish that was later deemed extinct. After searching for relevant information, Professor Smith determined that this was a coelacanth that became extinct 60 million years ago.
Professor Smith was naturally very excited to find such a rare fish. He immediately wanted to see this fish with his own eyes. But unfortunately, before Professor Smith could reply, the fish had already begun to rot.
So, Miss Latimer had to soak the fish in formalin and wait for the professor to come and check it in person.
Finally, a few days later, the professor rushed to the museum in a hurry, and finally successfully determined that this was a coelacanth.
60 million-year-old fish are still alive? This discovery immediately shocked the world.
Later, in order to find the second coelacanth, Professor Smith took her wife and visited almost all villages on the east coast of Africa and issued a large reward.
Finally, 14 years later, the hard work paid off. Some people claimed to have seen this fish in the Comoro Islands. In order to obtain this rare fish as soon as possible, the Smiths immediately contacted the Prime Minister of South Africa at the time, and eventually even used the military helicopter to finally successfully obtain this fish.
However, because of this incident, local people also paid special attention when fishing. Later, nearly 200 coelacanths were discovered one after another.
What you may not know is that the Comoros government once donated 4 coelacanths to our country and collected them in some paleontological museums. If you have the opportunity, I strongly recommend you to see this strange fish with your own eyes, because, if nothing else, it is the ancient ancestor of us humans.
However, the coelacanth at that time was divided into two parts. One part went to land and eventually successfully evolved into humans; while the other part returned to the sea and has survived to this day.
So, why did the other part choose to return to the ocean?
According to some scientists' speculation, coelacanths lived in fresh water in their early days. They evolved strong fins and successfully climbed onto land.
However, because the environment on land is very different from that in the ocean, some coelacanths cannot adapt and cannot even find food. So, I had no choice but to return to the ocean and continue to live a peaceful life.
Although other coelacanths are not adapted to the land environment, they have already made so many efforts to get ashore, and they do not want to give up halfway, so they slowly begin to try life, food, etc. on land, and finally Various biological branches have successfully evolved.
And those coelacanths that returned to the ocean, in order to stay away from danger, began to march into the depths of the ocean, and finally succeeded in finding a very hidden place and survived.
Today, tens of millions of years have passed, and these coelacanths have always lived there, because the water temperature in the deep sea is relatively low and the water pressure is very high. Therefore, during this period, there were no fish to disturb them, and people had no way to go down to such deep waters to see them.
As a result, they were gradually forgotten by history. In the early years, people could only understand them through fossils, and thought that they were completely extinct.
Although we have rediscovered them now, due to the serious pollution of modern oceans, scientists believe that the living environment of these coelacanths will be affected sooner or later. By then, they may become completely extinct.
No matter what, they are also another part of our human ancestors. If they are really extinct, to be honest, it will still make people feel a little uncomfortable. I hope that in the future, scientists can find a good way to allow them to continue to survive.
