http://vertebrates.si.edu/fishes/coelacanth/coelacanth_wider.html

Following a recent post of mine I have continued to research mysterious aspects of our oceans. Originally,  I was looking into some “mockumentaries” that were recently broadcasted upon the discovery channel networks on cryptozoological animals. This short research lead me to information upon an actual animal that was found to be alive when popular science thought it was extinct.  This animal is called a coelacanth. This fish is found only in the Indian Ocean and is a creature that has been living upon this planet for more than a hundred million years. According to the article that I have posted above this animal was thought to be extent since sixty-five million years ago, during the mass extinction that erased the dinosaurs. In 1938 this animal was discovered by a marine biologist and removed from the extinct species record. What makes this animal truly interesting is that it is a species of verdibrate that has many distinct features. Since the article is written  by the Smithsonian Institute it is written with a strong concentration in its scientific discourse. From what I can discern from the article the animals’ skeletal and fin structure are distinct to this species of fish, it also has a unique jaw and skull structure. The article also mentions a strong electric sensory gland that is unique to vertebrates. The reason as to why this animal caught my attention is because I was researching if large animals from past geological eras could still exist in our oceans. My quick research did not reveal to me any large animals that m ay have made the sounds that NOAA has recorded as bloops in their underwater sonar systems but this fish’s survival throughout history makes the survival of other supposedly extinct animals seem more plausible. Even animals that have supposedly been extinct for a shorter period of time, shorter being a couple million years. Also, what is strange about this fish is that it has no relatives that branch off of its evolutionary tree. According to the article above its closest relative is the lung fish, another ancient animal in its own rights. The coelacanth is a very mysterious animal that raises many questions about what species may still be living in the largely uncharted regions of the world’s oceans.