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The African coelacanth, a rare species that’s stayed much the same for the last 400 million years, has a lifespan of about 100 years, around five times longer than previously thought, according to a paper published yesterday (June 17) in Current Biology. Researchers used polarized light microscopy to examine scales collected from 27 fish captured between 1953 and 1991 and estimated, based on the structural patterns in the specimens, that the individuals ranged in age from 5 to 84 years.
“[The] coelacanth appears to have one of, if not the slowest, life histories among marine fish, and close to those of deep-sea sharks and roughies,” study coauthor Kélig Mahé of the North Sea Fisheries Research Unit in Boulogne-sur-mer, France, tells BBC News. “These new pieces of information on coelacanths’ biology and life history are essential to the conservation and management of this species.”
The African coelacanth, ...
