Monday, 15 August 2016

The Creature Feature: 10 Fun Facts About the Coelacanth

Photo: Pascalou petit, via Wikimedia Commons. Distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/creature-feature-10-fun-facts-coelacanth/
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/creature-feature-10-fun-facts-coelacanth/TH (PRONOUNCED SEEL-uh-kanth) is an enormous, bottom-dwelling fish that is unlike other living fishes in a number of ways. They belong to an ancient lineage that has been around for more than 360 million years. Coelacanths can reach more than six feet long and weigh about 200 pounds, and they’re covered in thick, scaly armor. It’s estimated they can live up to 60 years or more.
There are two living species of coelacanth, and both are rare. The West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) lives off the east coast of Africa, while the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis) is found in the waters off Sulawesi, Indonesia. They are the sole remaining representatives of a once widespread family of lobe-finned fishes; more than 120 species are known from the fossil record.
Read on to see why coelacanths are unlike any other fish out there.
1. Coelacanths were thought to be extinct until a live one was caught in 1938. Coelacanths were known only from fossils until a live Latimeria chalumnae was discovered off the coast of South Africa in 1938. Until then, they were presumed to have gone extinct in the late Cretaceous period, over 65 million years ago. The second living species of coelacanth,Latimeria menadoensis, was discovered in an Indonesian market in 1997, and a live specimen was caught one year later.
Photo: Ballista, via Wikimedia Commons. Distributed under a CC-BY-SA-3.0 license.
2. Coelacanths might be important for understanding the transition from water to land. Coelacanths were thought to be the ancestors of tetrapods (four-legged, land-living animals), but a recent analysis of the coelacanth genome suggests that lungfish are actually more closely related to tetrapods. The divergence of coelacanths, lungfish, and tetrapods is thought to have occurred about 390 million years ago. Coelacanths might occupy a side branch of the vertebrate lineage, closely related to, yet distinct from, the ancestor of tetrapods.
3. Coelacanths have a unique form of locomotion. One striking feature of the coelacanth is its four fleshy fins, which extend away from its body like limbs and move in an alternating pattern. The movement of alternate paired fins resembles the movement of the forelegs and hindlegs of a tetrapod walking on land.
4. Their jaws are hinged to open wide. Unique to any other living animal, the coelacanth has an intracranial joint, a hinge in its skull that allows it to open its mouth extremely wide to consume large prey.
5. Instead of a backbone, they have a notochord.Coelacanths retain an oil-filled notochord, a hollow, pressurized tube that serves as a backbone. In most other vertebrates, the notochord is replaced by the vertebral column as the embryo develops.
Photo: BrokenSphere, via Wikimedia Commons. Distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.
6. Coelacanths have an electric sense. Coelacanths have a rostral organ in their snouts that is part of an electrosensory system. They likely use electroreception to avoid obstacles and detect prey.
7. They have tiny brains. A coelacanth’s brain occupies only 1.5 percent of its cranial cavity. The rest of the braincase is filled with fat.
8. Coelacanths give birth to live young. After an extremely long gestation period, possibly up to three years, female coelacanths give birth to live offspring.
9. They’re nocturnal and spend their days resting in caves.During the day, coelacanths rest in caves and crevices. They leave these daytime resting places the same time late each afternoon to feed, mostly on fish and cephalopods. Coelacanths are passive drift feeders, moving lethargically near the ocean bottom and using the current and their flexible lobed fins to move about. During their nightly feeding ventures, they may travel as much as eight kilometers before retreating to a cave before dawn. More than a dozen coelacanths may seek shelter in the same cave; they don’t appear to show any aggression toward each other.
Photo: Alberto Fernandez Fernandez, via Wikimedia Commons. Distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.
10. They don’t taste good. People, and most likely other fish-eating animals, don’t eat coelacanths because their flesh has high amounts of oil, urea, wax esters, and other compounds that give them a foul flavor and can cause sickness. They’re also slimy; not only do their scales ooze mucus, but their bodies exude large quantities of oil.

References and Other Resources:
Amemiya, C. T., Alföldi, J., Lee, A. P., Fan, S., Philippe, H., MacCallum, I., Braasch, I., Manousaki, T., Schneider, I., et al. (2013). The African coelacanth genome provides insights into tetrapod evolution. Nature 496(7445): 311–6. doi:10.1038/nature12027.
Coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), Arkive. Accessed January 31, 2015 athttp://www.arkive.org/coelacanth/latimeria-chalumnae/.
Fricke, H., Reinicke, O., Hofer, H., and Nachtigall, W. (1987). Locomotion of the coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae in its natural environment. Nature 329(6137): 331–3. doi:10.1038/329331a0.
Fricke, H., Schauer, J., Hissmann, K., Kasang, L., and Plante, R. (1991). Coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae aggregates in caves: First observations on their resting habitat and social behavior. Environmental Biology of Fishes 30(3): 281–6. doi:10.1007/BF02028843.
Holder, M. T., Erdmann, M. V., Wilcox, T. P., Caldwell, R. L., and Hillis, D. M. (1999). Two Living Spcies of Coelacanths? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 96(22): 12616–20. doi:10.1073/pnas.96.22.12616.
Johanson, Z., Long, J. A., Talent, J. A., Janvier, P., and Warren, J. W (2006). Oldest coelacanth, from the Early Devonian of Australia. Biology Letters 2(3): 443–6. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2006.0470.
Latimeria chalumnae (Coelacanth), Encyclopedia of Life. Accessed January 31, 2015 athttp://eol.org/pages/225251/overview.
Lavett Smith, C., Rand, C. S., Schaeffer, B., and Atz, J. W. (1975). Latimeria, the Living Coelacanth, is Ovoviviparous. Science 190(4219): 1105–6. doi:10.1126/science.190.4219.1105.
Street, R. (1999). Latimeria chalumnae, Animal Diversity Web. Accessed January 28, 2015 athttp://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Latimeria_chalumnae/

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The miracle of iron

Iron is one of the elements highlighted in the Qur'an. In Surat al-Hadid, meaning Iron, we are informed:
And We also sent down iron in which there lies great force and which has many uses for mankind… (Qur’an, 57:25)
The word “anzalna,” translated as "sent down" and used for iron in the verse, could be thought of having a metaphorical meaning to explain that iron has been given to benefit people. But, when we take into consideration the literal meaning of the word, which is, "being physically sent down from the sky," as in the case of rain and Sun rays, we realize that this verse implies a very significant scientific miracle. Because, modern astronomical findings have disclosed that the iron found in our world has come from giant stars in outer space. 1
Not only the iron on earth, but also the iron in the entire Solar System, comes from outer space, since the temperature in the Sun is inadequate for the formation of iron. The sun has a surface temperature of 6,000 degrees Celsius, and a core temperature of approximately 20 million degrees. Iron can only be produced in much larger stars than the Sun, where the temperature reaches a few hundred million degrees. When the amount of iron exceeds a certain level in a star, the star can no longer accommodate it, and it eventually explodes in what is called a "nova" or a "supernova." These explosions make it possible for iron to be given off into space. 2
One scientific source provides the following information on this subject:
There is also evidence for older supernova events: Enhanced levels of iron-60 in deep-sea sediments have been interpreted as indications that a supernova explosion occurred within 90 light-years of the sun about 5 million years ago. Iron-60 is a radioactive isotope of iron, formed in supernova explosions, which decays with a half life of 1.5 million years. An enhanced presence of this isotope in a geologic layer indicates the recent nucleosynthesis of elements nearby in space and their subsequent transport to the earth (perhaps as part of dust grains). 3
All this shows that iron did not form on the Earth, but was carried from Supernovas, and was "sent down," as stated in the verse. It is clear that this fact could not have been known in the 7th century, when the Qur'an was revealed. Nevertheless, this fact is related in the Qur’an, the Word of Allah, Who encompasses all things in His infinite knowledge.
Astronomy has also revealed that other elements also formed outside the Earth. In the expression “We also sent down iron” in the verse, the word “also” may well be referring to that idea. However, the fact that the verse specifically mentions iron is quite astounding, considering that these discoveries were made at the end of the 20th century. In his book Nature’s Destiny, the well-known microbiologist Michael Denton emphasizes the importance of iron:
Of all the metals there is none more essential to life than iron. It is the accumulation of iron in the center of a star which triggers a supernova explosion and the subsequent scattering of the vital atoms of life throughout the cosmos. It was the drawing by gravity of iron atoms to the center of the primeval earth that generated the heat which caused the initial chemical differentiation of the earth, the outgassing of the early atmosphere, and ultimately the formation of the hydrosphere. It is molten iron in the center of the earth which, acting like a gigantic dynamo, generates the earth’s magnetic field, which in turn creates the Van Allen radiation belts that shield the earth’s surface from destructive high-energy-penetrating cosmic radiation and preserve the crucial ozone layer from cosmic ray destruction…
 
Without the iron atom, there would be no carbon-based life in the cosmos; no supernovae, no heating of the primitive earth, no atmosphere or hydrosphere. There would be no protective magnetic field, no Van Allen radiation belts, no ozone layer, no metal to make hemoglobin [in human blood], no metal to tame the reactivity of oxygen, and no oxidative metabolism.
 
The intriguing and intimate relationship between life and iron, between the red color of blood and the dying of some distant star, not only indicates the relevance of metals to biology but also the biocentricity of the cosmos… 4
This account clearly indicates the importance of the iron atom. The fact that particular attention is drawn to iron in the Qur’an also emphasises the importance of the element. In addition, there is another hidden truth in the Qur’an which draws attention to the importance of iron: Surat al-Hadid 25, which refers to iron, contains two rather interesting mathematical codes.
“Al- Hadid” is the 57th sura in the Qur’an. The abjad of the word “Al-Hadid” in Arabic, when the numerological values of its letters are added up, is also 57.
The numerological value of the word “hadid” alone is 26. And 26 is the atomic number of iron.
Moreover, iron oxide particles were used in a cancer treatment in recent months and positive developments were observed. A team led by Dr. Andreas Jordan, at the world famous Charité Hospital in Germany, succeeded in destroying cancer cells with this new technique developed for the treatment of cancer—magnetic fluid hyperthermia (high temperature magnetic liquid). As a result of this technique, first performed on the 26-year-old Nikolaus H., no new cancer cells were observed in the patient in the following three months.
This method of treatment can be summarised as follows:
 
1. A liquid containing iron oxide particles is injected into the tumour by means of a special syringe. These particles spread throughout the tumour cells. This liquid consists of thousands of millions of particles, 1,000 times smaller than the red blood corpuscles, of iron oxide in 1 cm3 that can easily flow through all blood vessels. 5
 
2. The patient is then placed in a machine with a powerful magnetic field.
 
3. This magnetic field, applied externally, begins to set the iron particles in the tumour in motion. During this time the temperature in the tumour containing the iron oxide particles rises by up to 45 degrees.
 
4. In a few minutes the cancer cells, unable to protect themselves from the heat, are either weakened or destroyed. The tumour may then be completely eradicated with subsequent chemotherapy. 6
In this treatment it is only the cancer cells that are affected by the magnetic field, since only they contain the iron oxide particles. The spread of this technique is a major development in the treatment of this potentially lethal disease. In the treatment of such a widespread disease as cancer, the use of the expression“iron in which there lies great force and which has many uses for mankind” (Qur’an, 57:25) in the Qur’an is particularly noteworthy. Indeed, in that verse, the Qur’an may be indicating the benefits of iron for human health. (Allah knows best.)

1- Dr. Mazhar U. Kazi, 130 Evident Miracles in the Qur'an (New York, USA: Crescent Publishing House: 1998), 110-111; and www.wamy.co.uk/announcements3.html, from Prof. Zighloul Raghib El-Naggar’s speech
2- Ibid.
3- Priscilla Frisch, “The Galactic Environment of the Sun,” American Scientist, January-February 2000, www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/21173?fulltext=true.
4- Michael J. Denton, Nature’s Destiny (The Free Press: 1998), 198.
5- www.inm-gmbh.de/cgi-bin/frame/frameloader.pl?sprache=en&url=http://www.inm-gmbh.de/htdocs/technologien/highlights/highlights_en.htm.
6- "Nanotechnology successfully helps cancer therapies," IIC Fast Track, Nanotech News from Eastern Germany, Industrial Investment Council, October 2003; www.iic.de/uploads/media/NANO_FT_Nov2003_01.pdf
2005-06-30 09:41:29 

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Aquatic respiration

Aquatic respiration is the process whereby an aquatic animal obtains oxygen from water.

Respiratory systems[edit]

Fish[edit]

See also: Fish respiration
In most fish respiration takes place through gills. Lungfish, however, possess one or two lungs. The labyrinth fishhave developed a special organ that allows them to take advantage of the oxygen of the air, but is not a true lung. Fish use the process known as countercurrent flow, in which water and blood flow in opposite directions across the gills, maximizing the diffusion of oxygen.

Mollusks[edit]

See also: Respiratory system of gastropods
Mollusks generally possess gills that allow exchange of oxygen from an aqueous environment into the circulatory system. These animals also possess a heart that pumps blood which contains hemocyaninine as its oxygen-capturing molecule. Therefore, this respiratory system is similar to that of vertebrate fish. The respiratory system of gastropods can include either gills or a lung.

Arthropods[edit]

See also: Gill § Invertebrate gills
Aquatic arthropods generally possess some form of gills in which gas exchange takes place by diffusing through the exoskeleton. Others may breathe atmospheric air while remaining submerged, via breathing tubes or trapped air bubbles, though some aquatic insects may remain submerged indefinitely and respire using a plastron.

Aquatic reptiles[edit]

The anatomical structure of the lungs is less complex in reptiles than in mammals, with reptiles lacking the very extensive airway tree structure found in mammalian lungs. Gas exchange in reptiles still occurs in alveoli however, reptiles do not possess a diaphragm. Thus, breathing occurs via a change in the volume of the body cavity which is controlled by contraction of intercostal muscles in all reptiles except turtles. In turtles, contraction of specific pairs of flank muscles governs inspiration or expiration.[1]
See also reptiles for more detailed descriptions of the respiratory system in these animals.

Amphibians[edit]

See also: Amphibian § Respiratory system
Both the lungs and the skin serve as respiratory organs in amphibians. The skin of these animals is highly vascularized and moist, with moisture maintained via secretion of mucus from specialized cells. While the lungs are of primary importance to breathing control, the skin's unique properties aid rapid gas exchange when amphibians are submerged in oxygen-rich water.[2]

Aquatic birds[edit]

The respiratory system of birds differs significantly from that found in mammals, containing unique anatomical features such as air sacs. The lungs of birds also do not have the capacity to inflate as birds lack a diaphragm and a pleural cavity. Gas exchange in birds occurs between air capillaries and blood capillaries, rather than in alveoli. See Avian respiratory system for a detailed description of these and other features.

Gills[edit]

Posterior view of the gills of a tuna
Large aquatic animals have developed gills for respiration which are specifically adapted to their function, for example, they have:
  • A large surface area to allow as much oxygen to enter the gills as possible because more of the gas comes into contact with themembrane
  • Good blood supply to maintain the concentration gradient needed
  • Thin membrane to allow for a short diffusion pathway
  • each gill arch has two rows (hemibranchs) of gill filaments
  • each gill filament has many lamellae
In osteichthyes, the gills contain 4 gill arches on each side of the head, two on each side for chondrichthyes or 7 gill baskets on each side of the fish's head in Lampreys. In fish, the long bony cover for the gill (the operculum) can be used for pushing water. Some fish pump water using the operculum. Without an operculum, other methods, such as ram ventilation, are required. Some species of sharks use this system. When they swim, water flows into the mouth and across the gills. Because these sharks rely on this technique, they must keep swimming in order to respire.
Bony fish use countercurrent flow to maximize the intake of oxygen that can diffuse through the gill. Countercurrent flow occurs when deoxygenated blood moves through the gill in one direction while oxygenated water moves through the gill in the opposite direction. This mechanism maintains the concentration gradient thus increasing the efficiency of the respiration process as well and prevents the oxygen levels from reaching anequilibrium. Cartilaginous fish do not have a countercurrent flow system as they lack bones which are needed to have the opened out gill that bony fish have.

Control of respiration[edit]

Scientists have investigated what part of the body is responsible for maintaining the respiratory rhythm. They found that neurons located in the brainstem of fish are responsible for the genesis of the respiratory rhythm.[3] The position of these neurons is slightly different from the centers of respiratory genesis in mammals but they are located in the same brain compartment, which has caused debates about the homology of respiratory centers between aquatic and terrestrial species. In both aquatic and terrestrial respiration, the exact mechanisms by which neurons can generate this involuntary rhythm are still not completely understood (see Involuntary control of respiration).
Another important feature of the respiratory rhythm is that it is modulated to adapt to the oxygen consumption of the body. As observed in mammals, fish “breathe” faster and heavier when they do physical exercise. The mechanisms by which these changes occur have been strongly debated over more than 100 years between scientists.[4] The authors can be classified in 2 schools:
1. Those who think that the major part of the respiratory changes are pre-programmed in the brain, which would imply that neurons from locomotion centers of the brain connect to respiratory centers in anticipation of movements.
2. Those who think that the major part of the respiratory changes result from the detection of muscle contraction, and that respiration is adapted as a consequence of muscular contraction and oxygen consumption. This would imply that the brain possesses some kind of detection mechanisms that would trigger a respiratory response when muscular contraction occurs.
Many now agree that both mechanisms are probably present and complementary, or working alongside a mechanism that can detect changes in oxygen and/or carbon dioxide blood saturation.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Jump up^ Britannica On-line Encyclopedia
  2. Jump up^ Gottlieb, G; Jackson DC (1976). "Importance of pulmonary ventilation in respiratory control in the bullfrog". Am J Physiol. 230 (3): 608–13. PMID 4976.
  3. Jump up^ Russell, David F. (1986). "Respiratory pattern generation in adult lampreys (Lampetra fluviatilis): interneurons and burst resetting". Journal of Comparative Physiology A. 158 (1): 91–102. doi:10.1007/BF00614523.
  4. Jump up^ Waldrop, Tony G.; Gary A. Iwamoto; Philippe Haouzi (10 November 2005). "Point:Counterpoint: Supraspinal locomotor centers do/do not contribute significantly to the hyperpnea of dynamic exercise". Journal of Applied Physiology. 100 (3): 1077–1083. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01528.2005.
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Coelacanth discovery in Indonesia


http://www.nature.com/news/1998/981001/full/news981001-1.html
Published online 1 October 1998 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news981001-1
News

Coelacanth discovery in Indonesia

Henry Gee

On 30 July this year, a fisherman called Om Lameh Sonathan and his 10-strong crew caught a strange fish in deep water off the small volcanic island of Manado Tua in Sulawesi, Indonesia. The 29-kilogram, 124-centimetre fish was an unusual catch - for it was a coelacanth, a rare ‘living fossil’ whose only other known population is 10,000 kilometres away, in the Comoro Islands in the western Indian Ocean.
The discovery of coelacanths in Indonesia changes our outlook on the conservation status of a fish that looks very much as its ancestors did, 370 million years ago, and which was believed to have become extinct about 70 million years ago - until a living specimen was netted off South Africa sixty years ago, startling the zoological world.
The Indonesian fisherman took the fish to Mark Erdmann, a postdoctoral researcher from the University of California, Berkeley, who has been working in Sulawesi for several years. He had been on the track of a live coelacanth for ten months, ever since his wife had spotted one in a fish market in Manado, Sulawesi - equivalent to seeing a unicorn in your garden - and had managed to take a few photographs before the fish was sold. Erdmann pursued the elusive fish by first interviewing local fishermen, several of whom claimed to have caught what locals call raja laut - the ‘King of the Sea’.
The fish netted by Om Lameh Sonathan and his crew was still alive by the time it reached Erdmann, who shot six reels of film of the still-swimming creature. Once the animal had died, Erdmann froze it and managed to store tissue samples in liquid nitrogen for later study.
“Our discovery of an Indonesian population of coelacanths challenges the notion that there is a single, unique population of these unique animals in the far western Indian Ocean and holds hope that other populations may exist throughout the Indo-Pacific”, says Roy Caldwell of the University of California, Berkeley, Erdmann’s colleague.
Caldwell, Erdmann and colleague M. Kasim Moosa from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences in Jakarta officially announce the discovery of the Indonesian coelacanth in the 24 September 1998 issue of Nature.
The tale of the coelacanth is strange indeed, and shows that the deep sea is full of surprises. Coelacanths were known for decades, but only as fossils. They appeared in the fossil record around 370 million years ago, had their heyday in terms of species diversity around 220 million years ago, and went into a long sunset that appeared to end with extinction, around 70 million years ago - just before the dinosaurs themselves perished.
Although coelacanths occupied many habitats in the sea and in fresh water, they always adopted a rather conservative appearance, similar to the very earliest species. Deep-bodied and sometimes large, with big, heavy scales, coelacanths look like something straight out of the Lost World.
Prominent among coelacanth features are the paired pectoral (fore-) and pelvic (hind-) fins, each with a robust, fleshy base like a little leg. The structure of these fins, among other things, led to the coelacanths’ place in zoology as possible representatives of the stock whence land vertebrates, including ourselves, evolved. Later work has placed coelacanths at a greater distance from the ancestry of land vertebrates, but their place in the hearts of zoologists was assured.
Finding a living coelacanth would be like finding a living dinosaur - yet it happened, on 23 December, 1938, when a specimen was caught in the Chalumna River, near East London, South Africa. That fish was namedLatimeria chalumnae, after its place of discovery, and Marjorie Courtenay Latimer, the curator of a local museum who got the first good look at the fish. The finding was described in Nature in 1939. Another 12 years were to pass before a second specimen was found.
After that, it became clear that all the coelacanths being caught came from the Comoro Islands, a small archipelago between Africa and Madagascar, in the western Indian Ocean. Fishermen catch about three or four coelcanths a year in the Comoros: there have been more than 200 catches since 1938. Specimens caught off Madagascar or Mozambique are considered to be strays from the Comoro population, although rumors persist that coelacanths caught off Madagascar might represent a distinct population.
But why the Comoros? Could coelacanths not exist elsewhere? And why the huge geological gap - 70 million years - during which coelacanths must have existed, but are conspicuous by their absence?
One answer could lie in the choosiness of the modern species, Latimeria chalumnae. Judging from its distribution within the Comoros, the fish prefers water that is both deep and cool - around 180 metres and less than 18 °C. In addition, it prefers to live near steep, submarine slopes pocked by caves. The Sulawesi coelacanths seem to prefer the same sort of habitat. But such pickiness is not extreme: there are probably many suitable places in the Indo-Pacific region that might yet harbour coelacanths.
Another answer is that the fossils of deep-sea fish of any kind, not just coelacanths, are scarce in the geological record. Historically, coelacanths occupied a variety of ecological niches, but deep-sea coelacanths are unlikely to have been preserved at all.
A third answer is that coelacanths are rare, even in places where they are known to occur. Even in the Comoros, catching a coelacanth is still not a commonplace. What this says about the conservation status of the species is unclear - either the species really is endangered, or it is very shy, and generally good at keeping out of harm’s way.
A fourth answer may lie more with ourselves than with the coelacanths. While the coelacanths were considered extinct, nobody would have looked systematically for a live one. Why should they? Finding a living coelacanth would have been considered as futile a quest as hunting a live Tyrannosaurus. The rediscovery of the coelacanth could only ever have been an accident.
And when coelacanths were found in the Comoros, people celebrated the mere fact of their existence, and were less inclined to search for them elsewhere. And if they did, where would they start looking? With just one population to study, nobody had any idea how to estimate the animal’s total geographic range. In truth, they could be anywhere and everywhere. Stories emerged of coelacanths elsewhere in East Africa, even in the Mediterranean - stories that remained unconfirmed fishermens’ tales.
The discovery of a second population gives the problem a badly needed dose of perspective. The researchers think that the Indonesian coelacanths probably belong to Latimeria chalumnae, but have certain differences: the Comoro coelacanth is blue-grey in colour, the Indonesian version is more of a brown shade, with golden flecks. Studies of DNA should settle that issue.
At the same time, the discovery makes a search for coelacanths in the Indian Ocean, and perhaps the western Pacific, a credible proposition. It also is something to give hope to conservationists: it is easy to destroy one, isolated population - to destroy two is much harder.
But the final lesson must be that the ocean is huge enough to conceal, with ease, many of its mysteries from prying eyes. To have found live coelacanths at all is comparable with finding live plesiosaurs, or live ammonites. Who knows what secrets the oceans may not yet yield? 
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