The discovery of the coelacanth, a prehistoric species, has sparked a race to document endangered deep-ocean creatures.
(Título) Photographer Captures a ‘Living Fossil’ from the Deep Ocean
(Subtítulo) The discovery of the coelacanth, a prehistoric species, has sparked a race to document endangered deep-ocean creatures.
8 May 2024
In the pursuit of preserving deep-ocean species before they vanish, photographers like Laurent Ballesta are diving into perilous waters. In 2010, Ballesta, along with three friends, carried 32kg (71lb) of camera equipment as they submerged into the depths of Sodwana Bay, located off South Africa’s east coast. It was there, for the first time ever, that he photographed a living coelacanth — a species once believed to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs.
“It’s not just a fish we thought was extinct,” says Ballesta. “It’s a masterpiece in the history of evolution.”
Coelacanths were once abundant during the age of the dinosaurs, inhabiting the marshes of the Triassic Period. They date back 410 million years and belong to a group of “lobe-finned” fish, the ancestors of the first land vertebrates. These fish’s strong, fleshy fins were a precursor to the paired limbs of amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and humans. In fact, coelacanths are more closely related to tetrapods than any other known fish species.
For many years, the youngest known coelacanth fossil was 66 million years old, suggesting the species had long disappeared. However, in 1938, a fisherman caught a living coelacanth off South Africa’s coast, an event that sparked further research. In 1987, ethologist Hans Fricke led an expedition using a submersible off the coast of Grande Comore, where he captured the first footage of living coelacanths.
