[PAR35]

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

[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.

[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.)

[SengirV]

Keep a look out for a Brontosaurus at the butcher shop, then we’ll talk.

[ReignOfError]

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

Which changed what, exactly?