{"id":70883,"date":"2025-10-29T13:26:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T07:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=70883"},"modified":"2025-10-29T13:26:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T07:56:01","slug":"coelacanth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/coelacanth\/","title":{"rendered":"Coelacanth"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Coelacanth Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paleontologists in China have described a new species of the coelacanth genus Whiteia on the basis of two fossilized specimens.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Coelacanth<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Coelacanth is a <\/span><b>prehistoric, lobe-finned fish<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (belonging to the order Coelacanthiformes) that was <\/span><b>once thought to be extinct<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for about 66 million years, until it was <\/span><b>rediscovered alive in 1938 off the coast of South Africa.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is often called a \u201c<\/span><b>living fossil.\u201d<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>earliest coelacanth fossils <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">date back as far as the <\/span><b>Devonian period<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, approximately 420 mya.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At one time coelacanths were a large group comprising about 90 valid species that were distributed worldwide in both marine and freshwaters.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>At present<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, there are <\/span><b>two living species of coelacanth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>West Indian Ocean coelacanth and the Indonesian coelacanth.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These fish live in <\/span><b>deep saltwater environment<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s and can grow to be nearly 2 meters long.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have<\/span><b> fleshy, limb-like fins<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that are internally <\/span><b>supported by bone.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their <\/span><b>fins are also paired<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and move in a synchronized pattern similar to four-limbed animals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As <\/span><b>one of the last lobe-finned fish<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, coelacanths have numerous <\/span><b>characteristics unique <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">among living fish.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among them is the presence of a <\/span><b>special electrosensory organ in the snout <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">called the &#8220;<\/span><b>rostral organ.&#8221;\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This organ is <\/span><b>filled with a gel <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and enables the coelacanth to <\/span><b>sense low-frequency electrical signals and &#8220;see&#8221; in the dark. <\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"2\">Another is a <b style=\"font-size: inherit;\">joint or &#8220;hinge&#8221; in the skull <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that allows the front portion of the braincase to swing upwards, greatly <\/span><b style=\"font-size: inherit;\">enlarging the gape of the mouth.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sci.news\/paleontology\/whiteia-anniae-14311.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">SCI<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coelacanth is a prehistoric, lobe-finned fish (belonging to the order Coelacanthiformes) that was once thought to be extinct for about 66 million years. Read more about Coelacanth, a Living Fossil, Features, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":70845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3451],"class_list":{"0":"post-70883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-coelacanth","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}