West Indian Ocean coelacanth
Videos
The West Indian Ocean coelacanth is a crossopterygian, one of two extant species of coelacanth, a rare order of vertebrates more closely related to lungfish and tetrapods than to the common ray-finned fishes. The other extant species is the Indonesian coelacanth.
Image: Latimeria chalumnae
Image: Latimeria chalumnae replica
Latimeria chalumnae model in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History
![Preserved specimen of Latimeria chalumnae in the Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria [length: 170 cm (67 in) - weight: 60 kg (130 lb)]. This speci](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Latimeria_Chalumnae_-_Coelacanth_-_NHMW.jpg/500px-Latimeria_Chalumnae_-_Coelacanth_-_NHMW.jpg)
Preserved specimen of Latimeria chalumnae in the Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria [length: 170 cm (67 in) - weight: 60 kg (130 lb)]. This specimen was caught on 18 October 1974, next to Salimani/Selimani (Grand Comoro, Comoro Islands) 11°48′40.7″S 43°16′3.3″E / 11.811306°S 43.267583°E / -11.811306; 43.267583.
Latimeriidae
Videos
Latimeriidae is the only extant family of coelacanths, an ancient lineage of lobe-finned fish. It contains two extant species in the genus Latimeria, found in deep waters off the coasts of southern Africa and east-central Indonesia. In addition, several fossil genera are known from the Mesozoic of Europe, the Middle East, and the southeastern United States, dating back to the Triassic.
Life restoration of Foreyia, an aberrant latimeriid from the Triassic of Europe