Live coelacanth discovered off the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, South Africa

摘要

When a living coelacanth was trawled off East London, South Africa, at a depth between 72 m and 100 m on 22 December 1938, it caused an international sensation. 1-7 The specimen was saved for science by the young curator of the East London Museum, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer 8 and identified by JLB Smith of Rhodes University College 5,6 . Smith named it Latimeria chalumnae, after Courtenay-Latimer and the river off which it was caught, and it is listed in the official Coelacanth Conservation Council (CCC) inventory as CCC 1. L. chalumnae is classified in the family Latimeriidae and the suborder Latimerioidea.