Coelacanth

The coelacanth is a large, deep-water fish belonging to an ancient lineage once known only from fossils and thought to have gone extinct along with the dinosaurs, until a living specimen was famously caught off the coast of South Africa in 1938, making it one of the most celebrated examples of a living fossil. Two living coelacanth species are now recognized, one found along the eastern coast of Africa and the Comoro Islands and the other in Indonesian waters, both dwelling in deep rocky caves and slopes during the day and moving to shallower waters at night to feed on fish and squid. Coelacanths grow slowly, mature late and give birth to live young after an unusually long gestation, traits that make their populations especially vulnerable to overfishing and disturbance, and both recognized species are classified as threatened.