New coelacanth species of fish found

New Coleacanth Species Found

Coelacanths are the world’s oldest fish. They are primitive, slow-moving fish were thought to be extinct until 1938, when one was found in Africa. There are now over 40 known coelacanth species out of which only two are living. These two specimen have remained unchanged for 320 million years.

And now a new species of hundred-million-year-old coelacanth has been found, according to a new analysis of bone fragments.

The new found coelacanth has been named Reidus hilli in honor of its discoverer Robert Reid, an artist who found the fish’s fossilized skull near his home in Forth Worth, Texas, in the late 1980s.

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Reid donated the skull to nearby Southern Methodist University, where scientists quickly identified it based on unique bones, called gular plates, on the underside of its jaw.

However, recently after examining  the skull bones in detail that he determined that it was an entirely new species.

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