New Coelacanths On Display
Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 26th, 2006
Two new exhibitions of coelacanths are worthy of noting.
The celebrated story of the coelacanth has made it one of the darlings of cryptozoology. It embodies a true tale of a “living fossil,” not verified as a “real animal” by science for 65 million years, then discovered off Africa in 1938 and rediscovered, with great fanfare, again in 1952 (as shown above).
The coelacanth was a fish known to the natives, and eaten, with some slight disgust because it was too oily. It was a part of the menu of fishing peoples for centuries off Africa, long before it became a favorite of museum curators and cryptozoologists.
Almost 70 years after its discovery, the coelacanth is still a rare type of fish to catch, with only about 200 caught off southern Africa and a handful of the new brown-speckled species found since 1998, off Indonesia. However, new populations are still being discovered, here and there, as with the species found located near East Africa, off the Malindi coast, Kenya, in 2001. Last weekend the 2001 Kenyan specimen was exhibited at the seaside resort town of Malindi.
News reports tell of the exhibition of this Kenyan coelacanth having drawn “a huge crowd, including National Heritage minister Mr Suleiman Shakombo and Belgium ambassador to Kenya Ms. Christina Funes Noppen. Other dignitaries who attended the launch of the exhibition of the fish included Regional Museums sites and monuments director, Mr Mzalendo Kabunjia and director-general, Dr. Idleh Farah.”
The exhibition is seen as a boost to the tourism industry in Malindi. National Heritage minister Shakombo is quoted as saying: “With proper marketing overseas, the coelacanths fish could attract lots of holiday makers in Malindi town. Even Kenyans in various parts of the country would be attracted here to see the peculiar fish, which was previously thought as extinct.”
By the way, this factiod in the Kenyan media report – “Kenya’s catch in 2001 was the third in the world since the South African one” – is incorrect.
Meanwhile, another “new” coelacanth will be making an appearance soon. At the forthcoming (June 24th opening date) exhibition, “Cryptozoology: Out of Time Space Scale” at Bates College Museum of Art (then later in Kansas), artist Rachel Berwick will be displaying her copal (a premature form of amber) cast of the coelacanth. It is quite striking in appearance. Take a peek.
For more on coelacanths, please see “Coelacanth Extinction” and “Coelacanth Images.”
Where are the coelacanth exhibitions that you have visited or know about?
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Thanks, Loren. That’s unique. I posted it in my own blog this afternoon.
By the way, someone posted a while ago about the cryptozoological models made by Jeff Johnson. He did a superb one of Dunkleosteus terrelli for me. (Not strictly a cryptozoological subject, but a favorite of mine, as you know.)
Perhaps by “the third in the world” they meant third location in the world?
Well, youcantryreachingme, that would still be incorrect, if this was a geographic reference. There have been several unique populations of the species discovered off the coast of Africa, as well as the Indonesia species. Nope, the context seems to be #1 = 1938, #2 = 1958, and #3 = 2001. Of course, that’s just as incorrect as would your three locations meaning too. Hey, it’s a media quickie, and their focus was the tourist boom that the exhibition will cause for this one area.