My Expedition and the Living Fossil
How would you describe science fiction movies as you watch them? In this article, I decided to take my movie down beneath the water…I mean fresh water, it can be soft or hard water but don't get it twisted, I admire nature as it displays its magnificence.
As I was taking my fictional expedition deep down over 1000 feet, I came across a sea creature known as The Coelacanth.
Rere to be found, this creature decided to take its home over 600-1000 feet down the sea. Definitely, I would be the first man to go down the sea with such depth.
This sea creature, known scientifically to be called Latimeria Chalumnae, ranges about 5 feet in size.
when I found it, for some moment I was wondering if I was bigger than it or it's bigger than me…I guess I should be longer than this creature because am a human right? that's if I ate lots of beans when I was much younger.
The coelacanth is an endangered animal, one of the oldest fish in the world and considered as a living fossil. 360 million years ago, it appeared in the ocean during the Devonian period until the end of Cretaceous when they were considered extinct alongside the dinosaurs and other marine reptiles.
This fish was thought to have gone extinct until it was later discovered by a South African museum custodian in the year 1938. Scientists were so amazed and were left in shock because they were astonished on how the living fossil escaped the Cretaceous extinction.
Later, in 1952 a second specimen was found in the coast of Comoros island in Africa near Madagascar and another was discovered in Indonesia in the year 1997. However, an analysis was carried out and discoveries were found that the Indonesian coelacanth was different from the African coelacanth although they came from the same ancestor.
Distinctive Description
Coelacanths can be described as a deep-sea creature that is large and plump because they can grow as long as six feet and weigh up to 200 pounds. Unlike most species like salmon tuna, guppies and goldfish which are ray-fined, which are supported by mostly the spines, the coelacanths are lobbed-fined and are covered with thick scales. In contrast to the ray-finned fishes, the fins of coelacanths are supported by fleshy stalklike structures and are closely related to lungfishes and the tetrapods.
The fins of a coelacanth contain bones that look like toes and are divided into three several lobes. Due to this characteristics, it is tagged as a lobe-finned fish. More so, the fins got a nickname called ‘old four legs’.
As we said earlier, there are only two known living species of coelacanths. The first habitat is near the Comoro Islands off the coast of Africa while the other is around the waters of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Other unique anatomical feature includes a hinged joint in the skull which allows the fish to open its jaws widely; a notochord which serves as a backbone instead of a vertebral column that acts as the backbone in other vertebrates. Another unique feature is that coelacanths can sense electricity. They have a rostral organ at the front of their mouth that uses electroreception to detect and avoid obstacles.
Habitat
The Coelacanth habitat is in the twilight zone which is ideally suited to its sluggish metabolism. It resides in underwater caves as deep as 500 meters during the day. Thousands of them can stay together in a cave as they can reside peacefully with their own species. However, they retract quickly when approached by a foreign sea life. It slows metabolism drifting along in deep-sea currents, migrating to cooler water and eats whatever crosses its path. Unfortunately, the sluggish nature of the coelacanths makes them a prey to larger marine life.
Meanwhile, they got this kind of blue color that looks like a camouflage that prevents the sight of other predators.
The eyes of a coelacanth contain tapetum. Tapetum usually in dogs, cats, and dolphins causes the eyes of a cat to glow when the eyes are exposed to bright light. This causes them to see very clearly.
Because they got eyes that are sensitive to light, these fishes love to dine in darkness and they prefer to stay in cold water because they got a problem taking in oxygen from warm water with their gills.
Their Feeding Characteristics
Coelacanths are nocturnal in nature. They rest in caves during the day and hunt at night going as far as 8 kilometers away from caves and returning before sunrise. They feed mainly on squid, eels, small sharks, and other deep-sea creatures. They swallow food in whole and they are capable of slowing down metabolism so as to manage food. This is one of the reasons they can survive for long without food in their natural habitat and can live up to 60 years.
Unique Breeding Characteristics
Typically, females are much larger than the males and there is a slight difference in their scales and skin color. The coelacanth reproduces by Ovoviviparity.
Ovoviviparity is a mode of reproduction in which eggs are fertilized internally and this process makes it possible for them to give birth to live coelacanth. In the case of the coelacanth, the female eggs are fertilized internally.
Coelacanth eggs are large and have a thin layer of membrane to protect them. The fertilized eggs are not hatched immediately, instead, it stays in the birth duct. The fertilized eggs feed on the embryo until it is ready to hatch, this process can take as much as 3 years. After the end of the process, they give birth to live young ones which are called ‘pups’. A female coelacanth can give birth to up to 25 pups. These pups are fully formed and can live independently from the time of their birth. The only difference between an adult coelacanth and a pup is that it is covered with a thin membrane and has slightly large eyes in relation to their body.
In Conclusion
The uniqueness of this deep-sea creature from the way they give birth down to their pattern of survival gives them the tendency to live long.
The coelacanths are rare to spot as they prefer to stay out of sight. The population of this creature are less than a thousand and this makes them an endangered species. If you would like to join me in my expedition next time, never fail to come along with your Jacket and swimming kits…I don’t know how to swim but I got kits available as backup.. creatures a down…feel them see them and touch them.
References List For Further Reading
Seasky
Owlcation
Thoughtco
Independent.co.uk
Wired.com
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Well done my naija guy in Cyprus... I enjoyed this article. Keep doing what you do!
Thanks brother...One love...I appreciate