After winning back to back games in Florida, the Winnipeg Jets head to Raleigh to take on the Carolina Hurricanes at the PNC Arena at 6:00pm. The Jets came away with a 3-2 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday and are winners of two in a row and are currently 38-26-3 on the season and 3-5-2 in their last ten games. The Hurricanes are coming off of back to back shutout losses, a 4-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights and a 3-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils. Despite this recent setback, Carolina is 43-14-8 on the season and 6-4 in their last ten games. Will Hellebuyck play tonight or is Rittich ready to rumble? Does Brind'Amour adjust his lineup after two shutouts, or does he continue with the same “Bunch of Jerks”? Can @kanadalainen continue to communicate coelacanth chants or will @White Out 403 wonder why Winnipeg's Wheeler won't wrist it? These questions and a few others I haven't thought about could possibly be answered tonight, but I doubt it...
I remember back in Grade Two at Isaac Brock School, I did a project with my classmate Gordie Mitchell on fossils. I don't remember too much about it, but I do remember we actually wrote about a living fossil called the Coelacanth. If I recall correctly, I drew a pretty awesome looking fish, but I don't think we got a good mark for our work. Anyway, I never really thought about it for almost forty years, until @kanadalainen mentioned it one day in one of his rants. Out of all the creatures on this planet to mention, he picked the Coelacanth, and alarm bells sounded in my head, and the memory of that project came back to me. Which brings us to our latest instalment of...
The coelacanth (pronounced SEEL-uh-kanth) is an enormous, bottom-dwelling fish that is unlike other living fishes in a number of ways. They belong to an ancient lineage that has been around for more than 360 million years. Coelacanths can reach more than six feet long and weigh about 200 pounds, and they're covered in thick, scaly armor. It's estimated they can live up to 60 years or more.
There are two living species of coelacanth, and both are rare. The West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) lives off the east coast of Africa, while the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis) is found in the waters off Sulawesi, Indonesia. They are the sole remaining representatives of a once widespread family of lobe-finned fishes; more than 120 species are known from the fossil record.
Coelacanths were thought to be extinct until a live one was caught in 1938. Coelacanths were known only from fossils until a live Latimeria chalumnae was discovered off the coast of South Africa in 1938. Until then, they were presumed to have gone extinct in the late Cretaceous period, over 65 million years ago. The second living species of coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis, was discovered in an Indonesian market in 1997, and a live specimen was caught one year later.
Coelacanths might be important for understanding the transition from water to land. Coelacanths were thought to be the ancestors of tetrapods (four-legged, land-living animals), but a recent analysis of the coelacanth genome suggests that lungfish are actually more closely related to tetrapods. The divergence of coelacanths, lungfish, and tetrapods is thought to have occurred about 390 million years ago. Coelacanths might occupy a side branch of the vertebrate lineage, closely related to, yet distinct from, the ancestor of tetrapods.
Coelacanths have a unique form of locomotion. One striking feature of the coelacanth is its four fleshy fins, which extend away from its body like limbs and move in an alternating pattern. The movement of alternate paired fins resembles the movement of the forelegs and hindlegs of a tetrapod walking on land.
Their jaws are hinged to open wide. Unique to any other living animal, the coelacanth has an intracranial joint, a hinge in its skull that allows it to open its mouth extremely wide to consume large prey.
Instead of a backbone, they have a notochord. Coelacanths retain an oil-filled notochord, a hollow, pressurized tube that serves as a backbone. In most other vertebrates, the notochord is replaced by the vertebral column as the embryo develops.
Coelacanths have an electric sense. Coelacanths have a rostral organ in their snouts that is part of an electrosensory system. They likely use electroreception to avoid obstacles and detect prey.
They have tiny brains. A coelacanth's brain occupies only 1.5 percent of its cranial cavity. The rest of the braincase is filled with fat.
Coelacanths give birth to live young. After an extremely long gestation period, possibly up to three years, female coelacanths give birth to live offspring.
They're nocturnal and spend their days resting in caves. During the day, coelacanths rest in caves and crevices. They leave these daytime resting places the same time late each afternoon to feed, mostly on fish and cephalopods. Coelacanths are passive drift feeders, moving lethargically near the ocean bottom and using the current and their flexible lobed fins to move about. During their nightly feeding ventures, they may travel as much as eight kilometers before retreating to a cave before dawn. More than a dozen coelacanths may seek shelter in the same cave; they don't appear to show any aggression toward each other.
They don't taste good. People, and most likely other fish-eating animals, don't eat coelacanths because their flesh has high amounts of oil, urea, wax esters, and other compounds that give them a foul flavor and can cause sickness. They're also slimy; not only do their scales ooze mucus, but their bodies exude large quantities of oil.
Coelacanths are an endangered species. They have outsmarted and avoided capture for millions of years (despite their tiny brain matter); however, not many of these fascinating and pre-historic creatures exist in the world today.
There are major concerns over climate change, as they don’t like warmer waters, and deep sea trawling where they are caught as a byproduct in fishing nets.
It’s estimated there are fewer than 500 of the the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) species that are considered critically endangered by the IUCN. The Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensishas) has fewer than 10,000 in population and is classed as vulnerable.
Coelacanths might be monogamists. Although the mechanics of coelacanth reproduction aren’t fully understood, we do know that their eggs are fertilized within the mother’s body. In 2013, a German team analyzed the corpses of two pregnant Latimeria chalumnae. DNA testing revealed that their unborn broods had each been sired by a single father. This revelation really caught the scientists off-guard.
“For both [of our specimens], it was clear that there was only one male involved,” Dr. Kathrin Lampert, a biologist who helped orchestrate the study, told New Scientist. Going into the tests, she and her colleagues fully expected to find that the eggs had been fertilized by many different males. After all, by breeding with several partners, a mother coelacanth could dramatically increase her clutch’s genetic diversity.
“Monogamous mating systems are most commonly found in species where the father provides parental care or where there is no opportunity for polygamy,” Lampert’s team noted in their report. Perhaps, they argue, female coelacanths save valuable energy by limiting themselves to just one mate per breeding season.
A prominent hematologist once wrote a coelacanth operetta. On September 10, 1975, a dead coelacanth that had been sitting in an aquarium at the American Museum of Natural History since 1962 was dissected. The decision to cut it up had been made when a hematologist named Charles Rand of Long Island University expressed an interest in acquiring some spleen samples. Together, Dr. Rand, paleontologist Bobb Schaeffer, and ichthyologists James Atz and C. Lavett Smith took a scalpel to the fish.
A huge surprise lay in wait beneath its skin. Within this deceased sarcopterygian, the astonished scientists found five embryonic coelacanths. These unborn babies revealed that, unlike most fish, the magnificent Latimeria chalumnae gives birth to live young.
Elated by the breakthrough, Rand started waxing poetic—or should we say operatic? With a parodic zeal that would do "Weird Al" Yankovic proud, the musically-inclined hematologist wrote some lyrics for a new operetta titled A Coelacanth’s Lament, or Quintuplets at 50 Fathoms Can Be Fun. His rhymes were set to the melody of various Gilbert and Sullivan songs, including “Tit Willow” from their 1885 comedic masterpiece The Mikado.
Let's hope Winnipeg can “Coel” the win tonight! Go Jets Go!
Thanks to: The Creature Feature: 10 Fun Facts About the Coelacanth, 14 Cryptic Coelacanth Facts - Fact Animal and 11 Fishy Facts About Coelacanths
I remember back in Grade Two at Isaac Brock School, I did a project with my classmate Gordie Mitchell on fossils. I don't remember too much about it, but I do remember we actually wrote about a living fossil called the Coelacanth. If I recall correctly, I drew a pretty awesome looking fish, but I don't think we got a good mark for our work. Anyway, I never really thought about it for almost forty years, until @kanadalainen mentioned it one day in one of his rants. Out of all the creatures on this planet to mention, he picked the Coelacanth, and alarm bells sounded in my head, and the memory of that project came back to me. Which brings us to our latest instalment of...
The coelacanth (pronounced SEEL-uh-kanth) is an enormous, bottom-dwelling fish that is unlike other living fishes in a number of ways. They belong to an ancient lineage that has been around for more than 360 million years. Coelacanths can reach more than six feet long and weigh about 200 pounds, and they're covered in thick, scaly armor. It's estimated they can live up to 60 years or more.
There are two living species of coelacanth, and both are rare. The West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) lives off the east coast of Africa, while the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis) is found in the waters off Sulawesi, Indonesia. They are the sole remaining representatives of a once widespread family of lobe-finned fishes; more than 120 species are known from the fossil record.
Coelacanths were thought to be extinct until a live one was caught in 1938. Coelacanths were known only from fossils until a live Latimeria chalumnae was discovered off the coast of South Africa in 1938. Until then, they were presumed to have gone extinct in the late Cretaceous period, over 65 million years ago. The second living species of coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis, was discovered in an Indonesian market in 1997, and a live specimen was caught one year later.
Coelacanths might be important for understanding the transition from water to land. Coelacanths were thought to be the ancestors of tetrapods (four-legged, land-living animals), but a recent analysis of the coelacanth genome suggests that lungfish are actually more closely related to tetrapods. The divergence of coelacanths, lungfish, and tetrapods is thought to have occurred about 390 million years ago. Coelacanths might occupy a side branch of the vertebrate lineage, closely related to, yet distinct from, the ancestor of tetrapods.
Coelacanths have a unique form of locomotion. One striking feature of the coelacanth is its four fleshy fins, which extend away from its body like limbs and move in an alternating pattern. The movement of alternate paired fins resembles the movement of the forelegs and hindlegs of a tetrapod walking on land.
Their jaws are hinged to open wide. Unique to any other living animal, the coelacanth has an intracranial joint, a hinge in its skull that allows it to open its mouth extremely wide to consume large prey.
Instead of a backbone, they have a notochord. Coelacanths retain an oil-filled notochord, a hollow, pressurized tube that serves as a backbone. In most other vertebrates, the notochord is replaced by the vertebral column as the embryo develops.
Coelacanths have an electric sense. Coelacanths have a rostral organ in their snouts that is part of an electrosensory system. They likely use electroreception to avoid obstacles and detect prey.
They have tiny brains. A coelacanth's brain occupies only 1.5 percent of its cranial cavity. The rest of the braincase is filled with fat.
Coelacanths give birth to live young. After an extremely long gestation period, possibly up to three years, female coelacanths give birth to live offspring.
They're nocturnal and spend their days resting in caves. During the day, coelacanths rest in caves and crevices. They leave these daytime resting places the same time late each afternoon to feed, mostly on fish and cephalopods. Coelacanths are passive drift feeders, moving lethargically near the ocean bottom and using the current and their flexible lobed fins to move about. During their nightly feeding ventures, they may travel as much as eight kilometers before retreating to a cave before dawn. More than a dozen coelacanths may seek shelter in the same cave; they don't appear to show any aggression toward each other.
They don't taste good. People, and most likely other fish-eating animals, don't eat coelacanths because their flesh has high amounts of oil, urea, wax esters, and other compounds that give them a foul flavor and can cause sickness. They're also slimy; not only do their scales ooze mucus, but their bodies exude large quantities of oil.
Coelacanths are an endangered species. They have outsmarted and avoided capture for millions of years (despite their tiny brain matter); however, not many of these fascinating and pre-historic creatures exist in the world today.
There are major concerns over climate change, as they don’t like warmer waters, and deep sea trawling where they are caught as a byproduct in fishing nets.
It’s estimated there are fewer than 500 of the the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) species that are considered critically endangered by the IUCN. The Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensishas) has fewer than 10,000 in population and is classed as vulnerable.
Coelacanths might be monogamists. Although the mechanics of coelacanth reproduction aren’t fully understood, we do know that their eggs are fertilized within the mother’s body. In 2013, a German team analyzed the corpses of two pregnant Latimeria chalumnae. DNA testing revealed that their unborn broods had each been sired by a single father. This revelation really caught the scientists off-guard.
“For both [of our specimens], it was clear that there was only one male involved,” Dr. Kathrin Lampert, a biologist who helped orchestrate the study, told New Scientist. Going into the tests, she and her colleagues fully expected to find that the eggs had been fertilized by many different males. After all, by breeding with several partners, a mother coelacanth could dramatically increase her clutch’s genetic diversity.
“Monogamous mating systems are most commonly found in species where the father provides parental care or where there is no opportunity for polygamy,” Lampert’s team noted in their report. Perhaps, they argue, female coelacanths save valuable energy by limiting themselves to just one mate per breeding season.
A prominent hematologist once wrote a coelacanth operetta. On September 10, 1975, a dead coelacanth that had been sitting in an aquarium at the American Museum of Natural History since 1962 was dissected. The decision to cut it up had been made when a hematologist named Charles Rand of Long Island University expressed an interest in acquiring some spleen samples. Together, Dr. Rand, paleontologist Bobb Schaeffer, and ichthyologists James Atz and C. Lavett Smith took a scalpel to the fish.
A huge surprise lay in wait beneath its skin. Within this deceased sarcopterygian, the astonished scientists found five embryonic coelacanths. These unborn babies revealed that, unlike most fish, the magnificent Latimeria chalumnae gives birth to live young.
Elated by the breakthrough, Rand started waxing poetic—or should we say operatic? With a parodic zeal that would do "Weird Al" Yankovic proud, the musically-inclined hematologist wrote some lyrics for a new operetta titled A Coelacanth’s Lament, or Quintuplets at 50 Fathoms Can Be Fun. His rhymes were set to the melody of various Gilbert and Sullivan songs, including “Tit Willow” from their 1885 comedic masterpiece The Mikado.
Let's hope Winnipeg can “Coel” the win tonight! Go Jets Go!
Thanks to: The Creature Feature: 10 Fun Facts About the Coelacanth, 14 Cryptic Coelacanth Facts - Fact Animal and 11 Fishy Facts About Coelacanths
