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FAQs - ACEP - African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme |
 | | In 1839 the Swiss scientist Louis Agassiz described a fossil fish in his book Poissons Fossiles and called it Coelacanthus because the spines that project from the back bone to the caudal fin rays were hollow (from the Greek koilos, meaning cavity or space, and akantha, thorn). |
 | | A Triassic fossil coelacanth named Whiteia africana was discovered in the Free State, and the original specimen is on public display at the South African Museum in Cape Town. |
 | | The Coelacanthiformes and lungfishes are separate side-branches of the primitive fish group that gave rise to the amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. |
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