{"id":362963,"date":"2021-10-26T23:53:57","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T23:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=122577"},"modified":"2021-10-26T23:53:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T23:53:57","slug":"dinofish-makes-science-look-foolish-yet-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/10\/26\/dinofish-makes-science-look-foolish-yet-again\/","title":{"rendered":"DinoFish Makes Science Look Foolish (yet again)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/coelacanth1-e1635228857420.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-122578\" src=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/coelacanth1-e1635228857420.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to \u201cscience,\u201d the coelacanth (<em>Latimeria<\/em>) went extinct 65 million years ago. After all, this carnivorous fish dates back some 400 million years to the age of dinosaurs \u2014 or so said the all-knowing men in the white lab coats. Along came a South African museum curator on a\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">fishing trawler in 1938. Lo and behold, he caught himself a DinoFish!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Coelacanths, Living Fossils of the Sea\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/__Woo6L1bl0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>A Few Things to Know About the Coelacanth<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">They are most definitely NOT extinct.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">There are two known species. One lives off the east coast of Africa where the 1938 discovery was made. The other can be found in the waters near Sulawesi, Indonesia.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Coelacanths live at depths up to 2,300 feet below the surface. To adjust to the poor light, their eyes use rods that absorb mostly short wavelengths. Coelacanth vision has mainly blue-shifted\u00a0color capacity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">They are believed to be \u201cpassive drift feeders\u201d and their diet consists mainly of cephalopods and fish.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Coelacanths typically swim slowly, conserving energy. Thanks to all their fins (more about that soon), when chasing prey or avoiding danger, a coelacanth can move and maneuver quickly.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">They are not pleasant tasting to humans and this may explain part of the DinoFish\u2019s long-term survival.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Coelacanths can live 100 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Females hit sexual maturity in their late 50s. Males\u00a0are sexually mature at 40 to 69 years. A coelacanth pregnancy lasts about five years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">One of the most interesting of coelacanth characteristics is its abundance of fins which may have marked an early step toward four-legged amphibians.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/coelacanth2-e1635229320652.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-122579\" src=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/coelacanth2-e1635229320652.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Here\u2019s how the folks at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/animals\/fish\/facts\/coelacanths\"  rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s2\">National Geographic<\/span><\/a> explain the coelacanth\u2019s unique overall anatomy and physiology:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span class=\"s1\"> The most striking feature of this \u2018living fossil\u2019 is its paired lobe fins that extend away from its body like legs and move in an alternating pattern, like a trotting horse. Other unique characteristics include a hinged joint in the skull which allows the fish to widen its mouth for large prey; an oil-filled tube, called a notochord, which serves as a backbone; thick scales common only to extinct fish; and an electro-sensory rostral organ in its snout likely used to detect prey.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/coelacanth4.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-122581\" src=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/coelacanth4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/coelacanth4.png 460w, https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/coelacanth4-288x300.png 288w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/2021\/10\/dinofish-makes-science-look-foolish-yet-again\/\">DinoFish Makes Science Look Foolish (yet again)<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/\">Dissident Voice<\/a>.\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/2021\/10\/dinofish-makes-science-look-foolish-yet-again\/\">Dissident Voice<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to \u201cscience,\u201d the coelacanth (Latimeria) went extinct 65 million years ago. After all, this carnivorous fish dates back some 400 million years to the age of dinosaurs \u2014 or so said the all-knowing men in the white lab coats. Along came a South African museum curator on a\u00a0fishing trawler in 1938. Lo and behold, [\u2026]<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/2021\/10\/dinofish-makes-science-look-foolish-yet-again\/\">DinoFish Makes Science Look Foolish (yet again)<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/\">Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6871,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,7197,553],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6871"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363007,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362963\/revisions\/363007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}