Details

LOT 1993

Natural History - Coelacanth Fossil Fish

TRIASSIC PERIOD, CIRCA 247 MILLION YEARS B.P.

6 1/4 in. (6 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.) (118 grams, 15.8 cm (280 grams total, 16 x 13.5 cm including case)).

A fossil coelacanth Whiteia woodwardia fish showing good details, including fins, tail and bony skull structure; supplied in a glazed display case. [No Reserve]

Provenance

From the Karoo formation of Madagascar.
Private Shropshire, UK, collection.

Literature

See Khalaf-Prinz Sakerfalke von Jaffa, N., Coelacanth Fish Fossil, Whiteia woodwardi MoyThomas, 1935, from Ambilobe, Madagascar, 2019, Quastenflosser Fossil 37. 1-15.

Footnotes

The primitive-looking coelacanth was thought to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Its discovery in 1938, by a South African museum curator on a local fishing trawler, fascinated the world and ignited a debate about how this bizarre lobe-finned fish fits into the evolution of land animals. It is often referred to as a ‘living fossil’, referencing its anomalous form in the fossil record.