Latimeria
Sign in to saveLatimeria is a rare genus of fish which contains the two only living species of coelacanth. It includes two extant species: the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) and the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis). They follow the oldest known living lineage of Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish and tetrapods), which means they are more closely related to lungfish and tetrapods (amphibians, reptiles and mammals) than to the common ray-finned fishes and cartilaginous fishes.
OverviewAI-generated
Latimeria is a genus within the animal kingdom, classified under the phylum Chordata. It belongs to the class Coelacanthi, order Coelacanthiformes, and family Latimeriidae. The taxon was described by Smith in 1939 and holds an accepted status in biological nomenclature.
This marine organism has a recorded history extending back to about 20 thousand years ago. Occurrence data indicates 263 records, while specific biological collections include four records held by institutions MVZ and MSU. These collections are associated with France and Madagascar.
Synthesized by Vinony from 24 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, GBIF, Gbif Occ, WoRMS, iDigBio, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Species
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassCoelacanthi
- OrderCoelacanthiformes
- FamilyLatimeriidae
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 4
- With media
- 3
- Family
- Latimeriidae
- Collections
- MVZ, MSU
- Recorded in
- France, Madagascar
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Parent taxon
- Latimeriidae
- Named after
- Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer
- Image
- Latimeria Paris.jpg
Show 7 more facts
- taxon rank
- genus
- taxon name
- Latimeria
- Commons category
- Latimeria
- topic's main category
- Category:Latimeria
- start time
- 20000-00-0
- CITES Appendix
- Appendix I of CITES
- taxon common name
- celacantu
via Wikidata · CC0
~32 min read
Encyclopedic overview
17 sectionsContents
- Description
- Anatomy and physiology
- Biology
- Reproduction
- Evolutionary relationships
- Genetics
- Distribution
- Discoveries
- First find in South Africa
- Comoros
- Second species in Indonesia
- iSimangaliso Wetland Park in South Africa
- Tanzania
- Relation to humans
- Conservation
- In culture
- References
Latimeria is a rare genus of fish which contains the two only living species of coelacanth. It includes two extant species: the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) and the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis). They follow the oldest known living lineage of Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish and tetrapods), which means they are more closely related to lungfish and tetrapods (amphibians, reptiles and mammals) than to the common ray-finned fishes and cartilaginous fishes.
They are found along the coastlines of the Indian Ocean and Indonesia. Since there are only two known species of coelacanth and both are threatened, it is one of the most endangered genera of animals in the world. The West Indian Ocean coelacanth is a critically endangered species.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Latimeria” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
Gallery (19)
On the map
3 mapped locations