February 26, 2007
Some might say the elusive coelacanth, in spite of its primordial ugliness, has attained rock star status in the popular imagination. Chris Justice, Assistant Professor of English and Mass Communication at The Community College of Baltimore County, February 26, 2007
Of course, you and I didn’t need the good professor to tell us the coelacanth is an amazing animal, a great story, and, yes, a rock star. But it is always wonderful to know that so many people agree with us that this is one very remarkable species.
Jokes and introductions aside, one of the more fascinating finned creatures to enter the collective consciousness of popular culture in recent years has been the prehistoric coelacanth (that’s “see-la-kanth”). With ancestral and genetic links to fish and amphibians from the Devonian Period (400-360 million years ago), this fish is a cryptozoologist’s dream come true. And apparently, scientists are not its only fans.Chris Justice
Justice has written a good overview of the coelacanth, with a great roundup of photographs he’s reeled in from various sources, in his blog today, “The Tackle Box: Defying Extinction and Celebrating the Strange”. If you can’t get enough of the coelacanth, check it out.
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.
Filed under Breaking News, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Expedition Reports, Extinct