Friday, April 19, 2013

Scientists genome sequence "living fossil" fish

The coelacanth or "living fossil" fish was thought extinct 70 million years ago until a fisherman caught one in 1938. An analysis of the creature's genome demonstrates why it changed so little in 300 million years.

These fish dwell in deep-sea caves and are very rare, so finding one to be able to test its living tissue was a challenge. Only 309 have been seen in the past 75 years, off the east coast of sub-Saharan Africa and Indonesia.

One of the members of the coelacanth genome team showed fishermen in the area how to collect coelacanth tissue in case they accidentally caught one again, handing out kits. They got lucky and caught one in 2003, but it was 2011 before the genome sequencing began.

For more of the Wired story: wired.com

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