Coelacanths (pronounced SEAL-uh-kanth) are primitive-looking fishes, survivors from the dinosaur-era to modern date. As far we know, only two coelacanths species are know, found in coastal waters of South African and Indonesia.
Researchers believed coelacanths has a maximum lifespan of 20 years,
placing the coelacanth among the fastest growing
marine fish. But these findings are at odds with the coelacanth’s other known biological features including slow metabolism, ovoviviparity, and low fecundity, typical of fish with slow life histories and slow growth.
Now, new methods for ageing coleacanths using scale ring growth reveals these prehistoric fish may live a centenarian life, but also, its life history is among the slowest of marine fishes, with 5-years gestation, and reaching sexual maturity at 50 years, the study found.
As long-lived species with slow life histories are extremely vulnerable to natural and anthropogenic perturbations, researchers aims that coelacanths may be more threatened than previously considered.
Photo description: An african coelacanth free-swimming in what appears to be a submarine cave. It’s mottled pattern is made visible by the help of external lighting from submarine divers.
Although well known as one of the most iconic dinosaurs, Brontosaurus (the ‘thunder lizard’) has long been considered misclassified. Since
1903, the scientific community has believed that the genus Brontosaurus was in fact the Apatosaurus. Now, an exhaustive new study by palaeontologists from Portugal and the UK provides conclusive evidence that Brontosaurus is distinct from Apatosaurus and as such can now be reinstated as its own unique genus.
Caption:This is Brontosaurus as researchers see it today – with a Diplodocus-like head. Credit: Davide Bonadonna, Milan, Italy
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