Located inside the Joint African Pavilion, you'll find the Comoros Pavilion, which boasts one of the few living fossils on the planet - the Coelacanth. Today, let's take a closer look at this rare species of fish that has a history of more than 360 million years.

Upon entering the Comors Pavilion, you might notice that one exhibits attracting a large amount of attention. Take a closer look and you'll find that everyone is watching and discussing the fossil of a coelacanth.

The coelacanth measures 1.2 meters in length, and 37 centimeters in width. The fins and the fishtail are kept intact.

The specimen of coelacanth was presented by the President of Comoros as the gift when he visited China in 1997, as a token of the Sino-Comoros friendship. So far, there are only two specimen of coelacanths existing in the world today. The other one is housed by the National Museum of Comoros.

The coelacanth is a large lobe-finned fish with a hollow spine that was believed to have gone extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period. It was not until 1938 when living Coelacanths were found off the coast near Comoros that the rare specimen was still known to exist today.

Zhou Hualin, Chinese researcher in Comoros, said, "Coelacanths breathe with lungs. Generally, fish breathe with gills, so the coelacanth is a very rare species in the world."

Comoros is exhibiting the fossil exhibit of coelacanth to reflect the country's keen concern for the conservation of natural resources, especially species on the verge of extinction.

Go to Forum >>0 Comments