Comments on: New Coelacanth Fossil Discovery

By: thylo

thylo — Sun, 06 May 2012 04:50:56 +0000

I am sorry, but the pedant in me has to speak up…

and I quote: “… it’s been given its own name, Rebellatrix, which means “rebel coelacanth.” ”

which of course is patently untrue and poor etymologically… there is nothing about the ending -atrix that means “coelacanth”. best I can figure the translation would more literally be “female rebel” (cf. “aviatrix”).

now having criticized the attempt at po-mo latin derivation, fantastic find! and a beautiful illustration too. thanks for the news!

By: DWA

DWA — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:00:37 +0000

It is indeed funny to watch scientists’ eyes get shocked open by things that anyone with the big picture would simply take in stride.

By: coelacanth1938

coelacanth1938 — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:03:53 +0000

Nature, always trying one thing or another.

By: Hapa

Hapa — Fri, 04 May 2012 06:54:55 +0000

I had no idea the Coelacanth lineage was that old (I knew the fossils dated back to at least the cretaceous era, but all the way back to 410 million years ago is amazing. That’s about as old as the Shark’s). The fact that this Coelacanth Rebellatrix was a more speedy aggressive predator was also interesting.

This once again shows us how little we know about the fossil record, about the full extent of the variety of life we have had on Earth.