Fisherman catches 'living fossil'

BBC ^ | Wednesday, 1 August 2007, | n/a

[fishhound]

n extremely rare "living fossil" caught by a fisherman in Indonesia is being examined by scientists.

The 1.3m-long (4.3ft), 50kg (110lb) coelacanth is only the second ever to have been captured in Asia and has been described as a "significant find".

An autopsy and genetic tests are now being carried out to determine more about the specimen.

Coelacanths provide researchers with a window into the past; their fossil record dates back 350 million years.

These fish are odd in appearance, looking almost as if they have legs because of their large-lobed fins - they are sometimes dubbed "old four legs". The blue fish can also perform headstands, hovering with their head just over the sea floor, possibly to detect food.

[fishhound]

Another non extinct "extinct" species.

Tastes just like spotted owl.

[PAR35]

Coelacanths used to be some of the best empirical evidence for evolution - until one turned up in a fish market.

[NonValueAdded]

Obligatory Helen Thomas picture goes here

[mware]

Thi is the same species that a fisherman in South Africa caught in the 1920’s

[mware]

[redhead]

"Obligatory Helen Thomas picture goes here..."

Kay...Here ya go...

[joebuck]

Hey, Helen’s looking better

[allmendream]

They thought the entire order coelacanth was extinct, this would be the operating hypothesis (awaiting new evidence)considering that nobody had ever seen or described the extant species, or seen any fossil evidence that the order had survived the Cretaceous. What other hypothesis should have been considered?

[ChessExpert]

As I recall, an alleged missing link fish that crawled onto land with nubby fins. Nice theory, but it turns out they can't crawl.

[PAR35]

What other hypothesis should have been considered?

There is a difference between an hypothesis and a theory, and between a theory and a pr oven fact. Evolutionists sometimes have trouble making those distinctions.

[allmendream]

A coelacanth cannot crawl, but it is related to the lungfish that can. Nobody ever thought the lungfish was extinct. Crawling out of dried up lakes in Africa and limited air breathing is apparently a winning strategy for a fish.

[SteveMcKing]

If it hadn’t been caught, they’d deride the absence of this fish as a missing link.

Now that they caught one, it’s shown as evidence against evolution.

[Caesar Soze]

"Hey, Joe, I just caught a coelacanth."

"A coelacanth, huh? Aren't they extinct?"

"They are now."

Incidentally, a coelacanth in a fish market no more falsifies evolution than does ... well, these things. I myself have seen both fossilized and living examples of dragonflies in the wild; it never occurred to me that I had disproved evolution! (Unfortunately, mom threw away my magnificent dragonfly fossil when I was about 10, ending my dreams of being a paleontologist. Maybe some future archaeologist investigating a trash heap will discover it.)

[Hydroshock]

I get the cornmeal and the tarter sauce.

[dfwgator]

[Roscoe Karns]

[TChad]

Coelacanth website:

http://www.dinofish.com/

[balch3]

another nail in the coffin of Darwinsim.

[Caesar Soze]

Bettas also have labyrinth organs that let them breathe air. Fortunately for us, they’ve never figured out how to use those long frilly fins to walk on land. If and when they do, we’re in trouble, because those things are insane.

[nmh]

A “living fossil” is a contradiction.

Oh well, so is evolution.

Evolutionists are totally ILLOGICAL.