Do you know what was the greatest zoological discovery of the 20th century? Many people would probably say that it was the discovery and identification of a living coelacanth fish (Latimeria), dragged up from the oceanic depths off the coast of Southern Africa. This discovery revived a lineage of fish that had been thought extinct for 70 million years!
I’ve written about coelacanths several times before: fossil ones, living ones, and even “living fossil” ones, but this month was the first time I attended a scientific symposium dedicated wholly to this enigmatic and enduring group of fishes.
I was fortunate enough to attend the 4th International Coelacanth Symposium, held at Josai University, in Tokyo, Japan. The meeting was co-organised with Aquamarine Fukushima Marine Science Museum and attracted speakers from 7 countries (somewhat remarkably spanning all 6 continents except Antarctica).
The speakers were a diverse range of scientists who covered everything from ecology and conservation of living populations, anatomy, as well as the evolution and disparity of fossil forms, and much more. I spoke about our recently described new fossil coelacanth from Australia, Ngamugawi wirngarri, and rates of evolution in the group since their appearance in the fossil record ~410 million years ago.
Many thanks to the organising committee (Masamitsu Iwata, Yoshitaka Yabumoto, Paulo M. Brito, and Shinya Miyata) for such a fabulous meeting, and I am very much looking forward to the next one (2027 in Indonesia, perhaps?). We were very well looked after in Tokyo, and it will be an honour to collaborate with this fabulous group of researchers!
ありがとうございました!!!
Dr Alice Clement 
Who’s the guy pulling shapes in the lower lefthand corner? I wanna go drinking with that guy!
Will
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