AN ANCIENT FISH
At a meeting of the Linnean Society held in London Mr J. R. Norman, assistant keeper in the department of zoology, British Museum (National History), read a paper describing the living Coelacanth fish, recently captured off the coast of South Africa. The discovery of this surviving member of a family of fishes hitherto believed to have been extinct for 50,000,000 years has been called “one of the most amazing events in the realm of natural history in the twentieth century.” Mr Norman said that shortly before Christmas, while fishing in about 40 fathoms off East London, Cape Province, a trawler belonging to the firm of Irvine and Johnson qaptured this fish in a mixed trawl catch of food-fishes and sharks. It was described by the skipper as being a brilliant steei-blue colour when alive, with large dark blue eyes. It was
noticed to be oily. Two photographs of the fish, taken soon after its capture, reached England.
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Bibliographic details
Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4188, 24 May 1939, Page 3
Word Count
160AN ANCIENT FISH Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4188, 24 May 1939, Page 3
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