Scientists have found that the living fossil fish coelacanth, a contemporary of dinosaurs that still exists today, can live for 100 years - five times longer than previously thought.
Scientists from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and the Fisheries Laboratory (France) who conducted the study also found that they have an amazing life cycle. Females become sexually mature only after 50 years, and hatch eggs for five whole years. Males are ready for breeding only between the ages of 40 and 69 years.
The coelacanth, known scientifically as Latimeria chalumnae, is endangered. They were thought to be extinct until they were found alive off the coast of South Africa in 1938. Researchers studied 27 representatives of living coelacanths of different ages, up to 84 years old. It was possible to accurately determine the age of the fish thanks to the use of polarized light - it turned out that there are five times more rings on the scales, by which one can determine the age, they are just very thin.
The coelacanth, known scientifically as Latimeria chalumnae, was long thought to be extinct 65 million years ago. Thanks to their fins, similar to the rudiments of limbs, these fish resemble the representatives of the first vertebrates, which "prepared" to leave the sea millions of years ago. However, in 1938, to the incredible surprise of the scientific community, a live coelacanth was caught by fishermen in the waters of the Indian Ocean.
The study was published in the journal Current Biology.
Blogs
