The living coelacanth was first scientifically recognized in modern times in 1938.
A specimen caught near the Chalumna River in South Africa was brought to the attention of Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a museum curator. Zoologist J. L. B. Smith identified it as a coelacanth, a group previously known mainly from fossils and thought to have disappeared about 66 million years ago.
The discovery became one of the twentieth century’s most famous examples of a living fossil. The fish’s lobed fins, internal anatomy and other features resemble those of ancient coelacanth relatives, although the species itself is not unchanged from prehistoric times.
A second living species, the Indonesian coelacanth, was recognized in 1997. Living coelacanths are slow-growing, deep-water fish and are not direct ancestors of humans. Their paired lobed fins provide an important comparison for studying the evolution of vertebrate limbs.