The second coelacanth, Anjouan
On 20 December 1952 a fisherman off Domoni on Anjouan in the Comoros caught a coelacanth, the 'living fossil' fish thought extinct for 66 million years until one was netted off South Africa in 1938.
1952 CE · -12.26, 44.53 · status: official
The account
Captain Eric Hunt recognised it from a reward leaflet, and J. L. B. Smith flew from South Africa in a military plane lent by Prime Minister Malan to collect it. Comorian fishermen, who called the fish gombessa, had caught them on lines for generations; the Comoros proved to be its true home.
The sceptical view
A real species; the case shows how a 'lost' animal can be well known to local fishermen.
The researched reading
A real fish, really caught. This is a case of science catching up with local knowledge, and nothing about it is mysterious.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| An unknown or out-of-place animal | 96% | A whole specimen was collected and described, and many more have been caught since. The Comoros population of Latimeria chalumnae is real and studied. A fish group thought extinct for 66 million years survived, and local fishermen had long known it. |
| Something known, misidentified | 1% | The identification was confirmed by J. L. B. Smith and later anatomy and genetics. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 1% | Hundreds of specimens and films of living fish exclude fabrication. |
| A cultural story | 1% | The “living fossil” label is a story added on top, but the fish is real. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 1% | Not relevant. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 0% | A surviving lineage is ordinary biology. |
Official position: A confirmed scientific discovery: the second known coelacanth, and the find that located the species’ main home.