Call number
Publication
New York : Harper Collins Publishers, c2000.
Pages
xv; 220
Description
A gripping story of obsession, adventure and the search for our oldest surviving ancestor - 400 million years old - a four-limbed dinofish! In 1938, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a young South African museum curator, caught sight of a specimen among a fisherman's trawl that she knew was special. With limb-like protuberances culminating in fins the strange fish was unlike anything she had ever seen. The museum board members dismissed it as a common lungfish, but when Marjorie eventually contacted Professor JLB Smith, he immediately identified her fish as a coelacanth - a species known to have lived 400 million years ago, and believed by many scientists to be the evolutionary missing link - the first creature to crawl out of the sea. Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer had thus made the century's greatest zoological discovery. But Smith needed a live or frozen specimen to verify the discovery, so began his search for another coelacanth, to which he devoted his life.… (more)
Language
Physical description
xv, 220 p.; 8.7 inches
ISBN
0060932856 / 9780060932855
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Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms: The story of the animals and plants that time has left behind by Richard A. Fortey
User reviews
LibraryThing member berrypuma
This book is like an action novel for the person who is facinated with evolution and with the moden scientific method. It challenges our notions of what we consider to be fact and fiction related to what species are believed to be extinct. This book is a true Jurasic park tale. I loved every page
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and refer anyone who will listen to me to it. It is a wonderful book for any age, but may be particularly well suited for teenagers who like science. Show Less
LibraryThing member Gold_Gato
Old Four Legs. While that may sound like someone leaving a pub run, it's really the affectionate name given to the Coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct until its mind-altering appearance in 1938. Since then, more have surfaced with their electrifying blue color and prehistoric everything
I first became fascinated with this living fossil thanks to a National Geographic issue dedicated to this strange being. This book continues that accessibility by not being very scientific and teaching the reader as much about the trade of the fishermen in the Comoros, as about the fish itself. What else is lurking down there? Captain Nemo? The Loch Ness Monster?
I believe.
Book Season = Summer (blue fish and green mojitos)
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else. They were supposed to be extinct! How amazing. Like Jurassic Park underwater. I first became fascinated with this living fossil thanks to a National Geographic issue dedicated to this strange being. This book continues that accessibility by not being very scientific and teaching the reader as much about the trade of the fishermen in the Comoros, as about the fish itself. What else is lurking down there? Captain Nemo? The Loch Ness Monster?
I believe.
Book Season = Summer (blue fish and green mojitos)
Show Less
LibraryThing member GoofyOcean110
If you are standing on your head in an ocean about 200 meters down and using weak electric signals in your puppy dog-like caudal fin and limb-like pectoral fins to detect prey, chances are you may be a coelacanth. If you are interested in reading something about a fish that does that sort of thing,
A Fish Caught in Time describes the discovery, search for, natural history (as much as we know) of, and the scientists and fishermen obsessed with this ancient fish that was thought to be an extinct 'missing link' between life in the oceans and life on land. Samantha Weinberg, the author, readily captures the excitement of the initial discovery in southern Africa that the fish was not extinct, and the recent discovery of another population in Indonesia, as well as the efforts to understand and capture a live fish and/or images of one during the time in between. The author makes it completely understandable why scientists, fishermen, and others become so enthralled they would travel halfway around the world to attempt to get a glimpse of this ungainly but beautiful and important fish.
But if you just want to stay in your armchair (or wherever) to get the picture, read this book.
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you may be looking for this book. A Fish Caught in Time describes the discovery, search for, natural history (as much as we know) of, and the scientists and fishermen obsessed with this ancient fish that was thought to be an extinct 'missing link' between life in the oceans and life on land. Samantha Weinberg, the author, readily captures the excitement of the initial discovery in southern Africa that the fish was not extinct, and the recent discovery of another population in Indonesia, as well as the efforts to understand and capture a live fish and/or images of one during the time in between. The author makes it completely understandable why scientists, fishermen, and others become so enthralled they would travel halfway around the world to attempt to get a glimpse of this ungainly but beautiful and important fish.
But if you just want to stay in your armchair (or wherever) to get the picture, read this book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member mrn945
This was a fascinating book for those interested in history, and with an open mind regarding the scientific world. Luckily, I possess both of those traits.
I've tried recommending this book to several other people who didn't look too excited about it. Nonetheless, I absolutely adored this book.
The
The tale was quite amazing. This poor fish had existed for 65 million years undisturbed, rarely being caught, until someone happened to recognize it. While this discovery was amazing for science, it was terrible for the fish. They went from being caught occasionally, swimming beneath the radar, to being hunted within an inch of their lives. Luckily, new populations of the coelacanth are being discovered, so their existence may not be as endangered as we were previously concerned.
The discovery of this fish is particularly important because of their potential link to evolution. They could be the intermediary step between fish and lizard's crawling on the ground. This would, of course, be an important piece of the puzzle regarding the evolution of man. While this part of the story was also interesting to me, it was the obsession of Professor Smith in his striving to find this fish, just one more fish, so he could understand something which had so thoroughly captured his imagination and his heart which had me captivated.
This could be written about a different thought-to-be-extinct animal, but there is something quite exciting about the discovery of a fish which swam before the dinosaurs, and continued to swim long past them. The coelacanth shows us that adaptation if possible, and that some things can last. I absolutely suggest you read this book, with an open mind and heart.
I've tried recommending this book to several other people who didn't look too excited about it. Nonetheless, I absolutely adored this book.
The
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story is true. The book was written to highlight the history of the coelacanth, an ancient fish thought to be extinct but recently rediscovered in the waters off of Southern and Eastern Africa.The tale was quite amazing. This poor fish had existed for 65 million years undisturbed, rarely being caught, until someone happened to recognize it. While this discovery was amazing for science, it was terrible for the fish. They went from being caught occasionally, swimming beneath the radar, to being hunted within an inch of their lives. Luckily, new populations of the coelacanth are being discovered, so their existence may not be as endangered as we were previously concerned.
The discovery of this fish is particularly important because of their potential link to evolution. They could be the intermediary step between fish and lizard's crawling on the ground. This would, of course, be an important piece of the puzzle regarding the evolution of man. While this part of the story was also interesting to me, it was the obsession of Professor Smith in his striving to find this fish, just one more fish, so he could understand something which had so thoroughly captured his imagination and his heart which had me captivated.
This could be written about a different thought-to-be-extinct animal, but there is something quite exciting about the discovery of a fish which swam before the dinosaurs, and continued to swim long past them. The coelacanth shows us that adaptation if possible, and that some things can last. I absolutely suggest you read this book, with an open mind and heart.
Show Less
LibraryThing member dylkit
I can not write an unbiased review, because I am so taken with the idea of the coelacanth..
To quote the last sentence of the book... "a schoolchild, in response to the question posed in a German magazine article, 'Why is it worthwhile living this week?' replied that 'coelacanth still exist.'
I
To quote the last sentence of the book... "a schoolchild, in response to the question posed in a German magazine article, 'Why is it worthwhile living this week?' replied that 'coelacanth still exist.'
I
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heartily agree. Show Less
LibraryThing member MiaCulpa
Ah, the coelacanth. Who could possibly not love this living fossil? So old and ugly, just like me. Although people don't tend to refer to me as "The Missing Link" (I'm still at the amoeba stage).
I grew up hearing about this wonderful fish, which had defied the scientific beliefs of generations of
Weinberg tells a good story and makes what is basically a book on fishing, a pastime I find extremely tedious, a page turner. And, I began to consider the Comoros islands as my next tourist destination.
May I look as good as the coelacanth when I'm in my 50 millions.
I grew up hearing about this wonderful fish, which had defied the scientific beliefs of generations of
Show More
wise men and women to turn up, looking rather healthy for its age. "A Fish Caught in Time" covers the rediscovery of the coelacanth and then the hunt for more as this fish, which had quietly bid its time in the oceans of the world for tens of millions of years, suddenly became the most famous animal since Rin Tin Tin. Weinberg tells a good story and makes what is basically a book on fishing, a pastime I find extremely tedious, a page turner. And, I began to consider the Comoros islands as my next tourist destination.
May I look as good as the coelacanth when I'm in my 50 millions.
Show Less
LibraryThing member setnahkt
A Fish Caught in Time is sort of a social history of the coelacanth. Author Samantha Weinburg is not a paleontologist or ichthyologist, so there’s not too much about coelacanth morphology or taxonomy or biology or ecology; instead we get biographies of the people involved in the coelacanth
Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the self-taught curator at the small all-purpose (natural history, local history, assorted junk) museum in East London, South Africa. Ms. Courtenay-Latimer had befriended a local fishing boat captain who brought her anything interesting he trawled up. One day in 1938 that was a six-foot fish with unusual fins and scales. Once, when Ms. C-L was caught daydreaming in school during a lecture on paleontology, the teacher made her write “a ganoid fish is a fossil fish” twenty-five times; thus, she knew a ganoid scale when she saw one. Alas, she couldn’t find anybody local who knew anything about it, her calls and letters to the local universities went temporarily unanswered, and there wasn’t enough formalin in East London to preserve her catch, and it was starting to go bad – so she took it to the local taxidermist.
J.L.B. Smith, a chemistry professor and amateur ichthyologist at Rhodes University, who was the recipient of one of Latimer’s letters – which included a drawing. The drawing kindled a faint memory of something he’d once seen in a textbook. He couldn’t believe his own memory and kept having doubts, but he wired Latimer and told her to keep the fish until he could get to it. It took him months to finish his exam grading and arrange a temporary leave, but he and Mrs. Smith eventually turned up at the little East London Museum – and there on the examining table was a coelacanth. Smith went on to publish an exhaustive description in Nature, naming the fish Latimeria chalumnae. The he went looking for another one – which didn’t turn up until 1952, and in the Comoros, caught by a native fisherman and identified by a local trader who recognized it from Smith’s reward posters and wired him. In a display of determination mixed with chutzpah, Smith called up the Prime Minister of South Africa and asked to borrow an air force plane to fly to the Comoros. The Prime Minister was a fundamentalist – it was illegal to teach evolution in South Africa until the 1990s – but had happened to bring one of Smith’s books on ocean fish with him for light reading at his vacation home. He called up the minister of defense and Smith was quickly on his way to the Comoros in a Dakota.
The Comoros were French territory, but the local officials apparently didn’t quite get the importance of the second coelacanth, and allowed Smith to load it up and fly away with it. The aircrew were practical jokers and announced that a squadron of French fighters had been scrambled to intercept them and force them back. Smith said he’d go down with the plane rather than give up his coelacanth.
The French were still pretty annoyed, and kept the Comoros off limits to all foreign ichthyologists. More coelacanths turned up, and finally the ban was lifted. When the Comoros became independent in the 1970s, the coelacanth was pictured on the countries stamps and currency, and (despite being listed as an endangered species) coelancanths were caught and sold to anyone who could pay for them.
Hans Fricke, an East German escapee with a mechanical bent, became fascinated by coelacanths and built his own submarine to go looking for them, resulting in a lot of information about the creature’s life habits. During the day, they rest in caves in small groups; at night they hunt with ultra-sensitive eyes and a curious electro-sensitive organ in their snouts. Videos show coelacanths moving like no other fish – their paddling fins allow them to swim in any position, and they are just as likely to be moving upside down or standing on their heads as in a more fishlike fashion.
A second species of coelacanth was found in a fish market in Indonesia by a pair of honeymooning marine biologists in 1997, and more were found offshore. There are now about 200-300 specimens in museums around the world (no aquarium has a live one, but the Japanese keep trying). Coelacanth oil has become part of Chinese medicine, apparently going for $1000 or more for a cubic centimeter. It’s supposed to give long life. (Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer died in 2004 at 97).
One more tantalizing item: two silver coelacanth models have turned up in Spain; experts say they are apparently Mesoamerican. There thus may be another population of our distant relatives lurking in the Caribbean somewhere.
Entertaining and a quick read, even if not technical – the bibliography references the detailed treatises. All the people referenced are quirky and interesting, and the chain of coincidences that resulted in the first few coelacanths are intriguing.
Show More
story:Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the self-taught curator at the small all-purpose (natural history, local history, assorted junk) museum in East London, South Africa. Ms. Courtenay-Latimer had befriended a local fishing boat captain who brought her anything interesting he trawled up. One day in 1938 that was a six-foot fish with unusual fins and scales. Once, when Ms. C-L was caught daydreaming in school during a lecture on paleontology, the teacher made her write “a ganoid fish is a fossil fish” twenty-five times; thus, she knew a ganoid scale when she saw one. Alas, she couldn’t find anybody local who knew anything about it, her calls and letters to the local universities went temporarily unanswered, and there wasn’t enough formalin in East London to preserve her catch, and it was starting to go bad – so she took it to the local taxidermist.
J.L.B. Smith, a chemistry professor and amateur ichthyologist at Rhodes University, who was the recipient of one of Latimer’s letters – which included a drawing. The drawing kindled a faint memory of something he’d once seen in a textbook. He couldn’t believe his own memory and kept having doubts, but he wired Latimer and told her to keep the fish until he could get to it. It took him months to finish his exam grading and arrange a temporary leave, but he and Mrs. Smith eventually turned up at the little East London Museum – and there on the examining table was a coelacanth. Smith went on to publish an exhaustive description in Nature, naming the fish Latimeria chalumnae. The he went looking for another one – which didn’t turn up until 1952, and in the Comoros, caught by a native fisherman and identified by a local trader who recognized it from Smith’s reward posters and wired him. In a display of determination mixed with chutzpah, Smith called up the Prime Minister of South Africa and asked to borrow an air force plane to fly to the Comoros. The Prime Minister was a fundamentalist – it was illegal to teach evolution in South Africa until the 1990s – but had happened to bring one of Smith’s books on ocean fish with him for light reading at his vacation home. He called up the minister of defense and Smith was quickly on his way to the Comoros in a Dakota.
The Comoros were French territory, but the local officials apparently didn’t quite get the importance of the second coelacanth, and allowed Smith to load it up and fly away with it. The aircrew were practical jokers and announced that a squadron of French fighters had been scrambled to intercept them and force them back. Smith said he’d go down with the plane rather than give up his coelacanth.
The French were still pretty annoyed, and kept the Comoros off limits to all foreign ichthyologists. More coelacanths turned up, and finally the ban was lifted. When the Comoros became independent in the 1970s, the coelacanth was pictured on the countries stamps and currency, and (despite being listed as an endangered species) coelancanths were caught and sold to anyone who could pay for them.
Hans Fricke, an East German escapee with a mechanical bent, became fascinated by coelacanths and built his own submarine to go looking for them, resulting in a lot of information about the creature’s life habits. During the day, they rest in caves in small groups; at night they hunt with ultra-sensitive eyes and a curious electro-sensitive organ in their snouts. Videos show coelacanths moving like no other fish – their paddling fins allow them to swim in any position, and they are just as likely to be moving upside down or standing on their heads as in a more fishlike fashion.
A second species of coelacanth was found in a fish market in Indonesia by a pair of honeymooning marine biologists in 1997, and more were found offshore. There are now about 200-300 specimens in museums around the world (no aquarium has a live one, but the Japanese keep trying). Coelacanth oil has become part of Chinese medicine, apparently going for $1000 or more for a cubic centimeter. It’s supposed to give long life. (Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer died in 2004 at 97).
One more tantalizing item: two silver coelacanth models have turned up in Spain; experts say they are apparently Mesoamerican. There thus may be another population of our distant relatives lurking in the Caribbean somewhere.
Entertaining and a quick read, even if not technical – the bibliography references the detailed treatises. All the people referenced are quirky and interesting, and the chain of coincidences that resulted in the first few coelacanths are intriguing.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nateandjess
A wonderfully informative book about the coelacanth from it's modern discovery up to recent times. The characters are compelling and almost feel as if they should be a in a novel. This is a very quick read that still gives a wealth of information on the subject.
LibraryThing member JNSelko
Exhaustive & well written.