Posted in December 2009

World's first video of baby coelacanth

Posted on 28 December, 2009

The juvenile Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis) was 31.5 centimeters long, according to laser measurements. The laser beams visible in the photograph are spaced 20 centimeters apart.

Researchers from Aquamarine Fukushima aquarium in Iwaki, Japan have captured the first-ever video footage of a baby coelacanth -- a rare type of fish regarded as "a living fossil" -- in Indonesian waters.

According to the researchers, the juvenile fish was observed on October 6 at a depth of 161 meters in Manado Bay off Sulawesi Island, not far from where the first Indonesian coelacanth was discovered in 1997.

The video footage, which was taken with cameras aboard a remotely operated underwater vehicle, showed the young coelacanth swimming slowly along the rocky sea floor for about 20 minutes. Colored blue with white spots, the fish measured 31.5 centimeters long -- roughly the same size as a juvenile once discovered inside the belly of a pregnant coelacanth.

Although little is known about coelacanth reproduction, previous examinations of captured specimens have shown that their eggs hatch inside the female and the young fish are born as fully formed juveniles.

Coelacanths are believed to have originated about 360 million years ago and have changed little since prehistoric times. The primitive fish was known only from fossils and was thought to have gone extinct about 80 million years ago, until a living specimen was captured in the West Indian Ocean off southeastern Africa in 1938.

In 1997, a fish identified as a coelacanth was photographed in an Indonesian fish market, more than 10,000 kilometers away from its only known relatives in Africa. A live Indonesian coelacanth was captured in 1998, and DNA analysis showed it to be a separate species from the West Indian Ocean coelacanth.

The Aquamarine Fukushima team has been conducting field surveys in North Sulawesi since 2005 along with researchers from Sam Ratulangi University and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. They hope their discovery will shed new light on the habitat and breeding habits of coelacanths.

Links:
- Video: Newly born 'missing link' prehistoric fish caught on video for first time [guardian.co.uk]

- Aquarium snaps world's first photos of young coelacanth [The Japan Times Online]