Species profile
Latimeria chalumnae
Coelacanth
CR · Critically Endangered — Critically Endangered — extreme risk of extinction in the wild
About this species
Coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) is part of the curated SpeciesWatch catalogue and is classified as Critically Endangered. The coelacanth was known only from fossils until 1938, when a living one turned up in a South African fish market — 66 million years after it was presumed extinct. The overall trend remains uncertain or is not applicable, so it should not be inferred from a small number of observations.
Habitat, behaviour and ecological role
This profile associates the species with marine. These labels summarise environments used during different stages of its life rather than drawing an exact range boundary. It walks underwater with its lobed fins in an alternating pattern like a trotting horse, a glimpse of how fins became legs. Its anatomy and behaviour are responses to those environments, while movement can connect distant places requiring different forms of management.
Why this species is at risk
Coelacanths can live for a century, carry their young for five years — the longest pregnancy known — and have a hinge in the skull that lets them open their jaws extra wide. The catalogue records 2 principal pressures for this profile: Bycatch, Deep-sea fishing. They should not be treated as isolated causes. Habitat change, exploitation, pollution, disease and climate stress can reinforce one another, while the importance of each pressure varies between regions and through time.
Conservation outlook
Fishery management needs enforceable limits, more selective gear, bycatch reduction and coordinated compliance across jurisdictions. Actions need long-term monitoring and revision as evidence changes; a positive intervention in one place does not by itself represent recovery across the species.
Editorial review: 2026-08-21
Threat factors
Known occurrences
Dots are georeferenced occurrence records from OBIS (marine) and GBIF (global), not individual animals and not a complete range map. Up to 500 recent API results are cached; the profile renders at most 500 points.
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