Coelacanth

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Coelacanths ( SEE-lə-kanth) are an ancient group of lobe-finned fish (Sarcopterygii) in the class Actinistia. As sarcopterygians, they are more closely related to lungfish and tetrapods (the terrestrial vertebrates including living amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) than to ray-finned fish. There is only a single living genus, Latimeria, with two described species. The name coelacanth originates from the Permian genus Coelacanthus, which was the first scientifically named genus of coelacanths (in 1839), becoming the type genus of Coelacanthiformes as other species were discovered and named. Well-represented in freshwater and marine deposits from as early as the Devonian period (more than 410 million years ago), they were thought to have become extinct in the Late Cretaceous, around 66 million years ago. The first living coelacanth species to be discovered, Latimeria chalumnae, the West Indian Ocean coelacanth, was described from specimens fished off the coast of South Africa from...

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