Godless Dave

There's a Nova special on Ceolacanths on PBS right now. It's sweet. I don't know if it's new or a rerun. Check your local listings! I'm watching channel 2 in the Twin Cities.

Someone please correct my spelling.

Doubting Didymus

Its coaly-kanth

Oolon Colluphid

Is that like them coaly-bears they have in Australia?

For anyone's future reference, it's coelacanth.

Pronounced seal-a-canth (probably a plumbing material).

But spelled coe-la-canth:

Coe, like the 80s British Olympic runner Sebastian

La, a note to follow 'soh'

and Canth, which meanth 'more than one can'.

[Edited to add: which means, I guess, that it should be pronounced coe-la-cans. I prefer 'Pepsi', meself.]

Cheers, DT, constructor of contorted mnemonics.

Oolon Colluphid

Sounds like a repeat of the programme that came up a while back. AFAI can remember, the Nova show is an American cut of the BBC’s Horizon programme The Missing Link. Those who missed this showing might like to look round the Beeb’s site, which contains a transcript and many useful links.

Cheers, DT

LeftCoast

Yes, my name is spelled "Luxury Yacht", but it's pronounced "Throat Warbler Mangrove"!

Janaya

Yes, I saw this show last night on NOVA. It was extremely interesting. Prior to seeing this I had only known this fish to be a living fossil. I had no idea that it was representative of a 'missing link'. I think one of the most surprising things, other than it's limb like fins, was that it bears live young! Wow. I also found the circumstances of it's initial discovery to be a bit out of the ordinary. A woman recognized that it was an extremely unique find and persevered until she go a response from the scientific community. And this was 1938, IIRC.

Anyway, I thought that this program was well done, and considering the importance of this animal I would recommend everyone to see it.

Mageth

I saw it; a damned enjoyable show about a damned fascinating fish. I especially enjoyed the several videos of coelacanths in the wild, and how the Comoros (sp) islanders and Phillipine fishermen knew of (probably for centuries), and had names for, the coelacanth.

BTW, coelacanth means "hollow spine", IIRC from the show, though technically the coelacanth has a notochord, not a true spine.

Here's a very detailed page of information on the Coelacanth.

I had no idea that it was representative of a 'missing link'.

It is important to note that the (perhaps two) species of coelacanth that exist today are not really "missing links." Rather, ancestors of these species may also have been on the evolutionary line to tetrapods, though note that the early phylogenetic history of tetrapods is, at this time, still controversial:

coelacanths to tetrapods?

Alludium Fozdex

Isn't that something like spelling your name "S-M-I-T-H" and pronouncing it "Janovski"?

Janaya

Yes. Thank you Mageth for saying it better than I did. I certainly did not mean to mislead anyone.

And, yes, I agree with you that it is...

As far as native people being aware of this fish, it doesn't surprise me too much. Usually when you hear of something "discovered" and/or "previously unknown" it usually only means undiscovered or previously unknown to the scientific community or the world at large. Though, the more integrated we become as a world community the less this will happen.

Mageth

Yes. Thank you Mageth for saying it better than I did. I certainly did not mean to mislead anyone.

I understood what you meant, I just thought it was important to make it clear. (IMO, the show was a bit weak on this point, but I was pretty sleepy when watching it so I might have missed something).

As far as native people being aware of this fish, it doesn't surprise me too much. Usually when you hear of something "discovered" and/or "previously unknown" it usually only means undiscovered or previously unknown to the scientific community or the world at large. Though, the more integrated we become as a world community the less this will happen.

Excellent points.