Indonesian coelacanth explained

The Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis, Indonesian: raja laut), also called Sulawesi coelacanth, is one of two living species of coelacanth, identifiable by its brown color. It is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN, while the other species, L. chalumnae (West Indian Ocean coelacanth) is listed as critically endangered.[1] Separate populations of the Indonesian coelacanth are found in the waters of north Sulawesi as well as Papua and West Papua.

Discovery

On September 18, 1997, Arnaz and Mark Erdmann, traveling in Indonesia on their honeymoon, saw a strange fish in a market at Manado Tua, on the island of Sulawesi.[2] Mark Erdmann thought it was a gombessa (Comoro coelacanth), although it was brown, not blue. Erdmann took only a few photographs of the fish before it was sold. After confirming that the discovery was unique, Erdmann returned to Sulawesi in November 1997, interviewing fishermen to look for further examples.[3] [4] In July 1998, a fisherman Om Lameh Sonatham caught a second Indonesian specimen, 1.2 m in length and weighing 29 kg on July 30, 1998, and handed the fish to Erdmann.[5] The fish was barely alive, but it lived for six hours, allowing Erdmann to photographically document its coloration, fin movements and general behavior. The specimen was preserved and donated to the Bogor Zoological Museum, part of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.[2] Erdmann's discovery was announced in Nature in September 1998.[6]

The fish collected by Erdmann was described in a 1999 issue of Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des sciences Paris by Pouyaud et al. It was given the scientific name Latimeria menadoensis (named after Manado where the specimen was found).[7] The description and its naming were published without the involvement or knowledge of Erdmann, who had been independently conducting research on the specimen at the time.[8] In response to Erdmann's complaints, Pouyaud and two other scientists asserted in a submission to Nature that they had been aware of the new species since 1995, predating the 1997 discovery. However the supplied photographic evidence of the purported earlier specimen, supposedly collected off southwest Java, was recognised as a crude forgery by the editorial team and the claim was never published.[9] [10]

The fish is legally protected through the Minister of Forestry Regulation No. 7/1999.[11] However, it continued to be caught by local fishermen; on November 5, 2014, a fisherman found a specimen in his net, the seventh Indonesian coelacanth found in Indonesian waters since 1998.[12] Eight have been caught as of 2018.

Description

Superficially, the Indonesian coelacanth, known locally as raja laut ("king of the sea"), appears to be the same as those found in the Comoros except that the background coloration of the skin is brownish-gray rather than bluish. It has the same white mottling pattern as the West Indian Ocean coelacanth, but with flecks over the dorsal surface of its body and fins that appear golden due to the reflection of light.[6] It may grow to 1.4 meters long.[13]

DNA analysis has shown that the specimen obtained by Erdmann differed genetically from the Comorian population.[14] [15] In 2005, a molecular study estimated the divergence time between the Indonesian and Comorian coelacanth species to be 30–40 mya. The two species show a 4.28% overall difference in their nucleotides.[16]

An analysis of a specimen recovered from Waigeo, West Papua in eastern Indonesia indicates that there may be another lineage of the Indonesian coelacanth, and the two lineages may have diverged 13 million years ago. Whether this new lineage represents a subspecies or a new species has yet to be determined.[17]

Habitat

Teams of researchers using submersibles have recorded live sightings of the fish in the waters of Manado Tua and the Talise islands off north Sulawesi as well as in the waters of Biak in Papua.[18] [19] [20] These areas share similar steep rocky topography full of caves, which are the habitat of the fish. These coelacanths live in deep waters of around 150 metres or more, at a temperature between 14 and 18 degrees Celsius.[18]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Musick, J. A. . Latimeria chalumnae . 2000 . e.T11375A3274618 . 2000 . 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2000.RLTS.T11375A3274618.en .
  2. News: Jewett. Susan L.. On the Trail of the Coelacanth, a Living Fossil". The Washington Post. November 11, 1998. 2007-06-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20050916104737/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/horizon/nov98/fishstory.htm . September 16, 2005 .
  3. Coelacanth discovery in Indonesia . Henry . Gee . 1 October 1998 . Nature . 10.1038/news981001-1 .
  4. Web site: The Discovery . University of California Museum of Paleontology .
  5. Nelson, Joseph S. (2006). Fishes of the World. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
  6. Indonesian 'king of the sea' discovered. Mark V. . Erdmann. Roy L.. Caldwell . M. Kasim . Moosa . Nature . 395. 335. 24 September 1998 . 6700. 10.1038/26376. 1998Natur.395..335E. 204997216. free.
  7. Pouyaud, L. . S. Wirjoatmodjo . I. Rachmatika . A. Tjakrawidjaja. R. Hadiaty . W. Hadie . amp . 1999 . Une nouvelle espèce de coelacanthe: preuves génétiques et morphologiques . Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Série III . 322 . 261–267 . 10.1016/S0764-4469(99)80061-4 . 4 . 10216801. 1999CRASG.322..261P .
  8. Holden, C. . 1999 . Dispute Over a Legendary Fish . Science . 284 . 5411 . 22–23 . 10.1126/science.284.5411.22b. 10215525 . 5441807 .
  9. McCabe, H. . J. Wright . amp . 2000 . Tangled tale of a lost, stolen and disputed coelacanth . Nature . 406 . 6792 . 114 . 10.1038/35018247 . 10910324 . free .
  10. McCabe, H.. 2000 . Recriminations and confusion over 'fake' coelacanth photo . Nature . 406 . 6794 . 343 . 10.1038/35018716 . 10917500 . 2000Natur.406..225M . free .
  11. Book: 10th International Aquarium Congress Fukushima 2018 . History, Conservation and Research Program of Indonesian Coelacanth . F. D. Hukom . Masamitsu Iwata . Augy Syahailatua . Teguh Peristiwady . Kawilarang W.A. Masengi . Dirhamsyah . Yoshitaka Abe . 122–126 .
  12. Web site: Another Pre-Historical Fish Caught in Sulawesi Water . Gabriel Wahyu Titiyoga . November 15, 2014.
  13. Biogeography of the Indonesian coelacanths. H. Fricke . K. Hissmann . J. Schauer . M. Erdmann . M. K. Moosa . R. Plante . Nature . 403 . 6765. 38. 10.1038/47400 . 2000 . 10638741. 4387312. free .
  14. Erdmann . Mark V. . An Account of the First Living Coelacanth known to Scientists from Indonesian Waters . Environmental Biology of Fishes . 54 .
    1. 4
    . 439–443 . April 1999 . 10.1023/A:1007584227315 . 1999EnvBF..54..439E . 46211870 . 0378-1909 (Print) 1573-5133 (Online) .
  15. Holder, Mark T. . Mark V. Erdmann . Thomas P. Wilcox . Roy L. Caldwell . David M. Hillis . amp . 1999 . Two living species of coelacanths? . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 96 . 12616–12620 . 10.1073/pnas.96.22.12616 . 22 . 10535971 . 23015. 1999PNAS...9612616H . free .
  16. Inoue J. G. . M. Miya . B. Venkatesh . M. Nishida . 2005 . The mitochondrial genome of Indonesian coelacanth Latimeria menadoensis (Sarcopterygii: Coelacanthiformes) and divergence time estimation between the two coelacanths . Gene . 349 . 227–235 . 10.1016/j.gene.2005.01.008 . 15777665.
  17. A thirteen-million-year divergence between two lineages of Indonesian coelacanths . Kadarusman . Hagi Yulia Sugeha . Laurent Pouyaud . Régis Hocdé . Intanurfemi B. Hismayasari . Endang Gunaisah . Santoso B. Widiarto . Gulam Arafat . Ferliana Widyasari . David Mouillot . Emmanuel Paradis . Scientific Reports . 13 January 2020 . 10. 1. 192. 31932637 . 6957673 . 10.1038/s41598-019-57042-1 . 2020NatSR..10..192K .
  18. Web site: Hunting for living fossils in Indonesian waters. March 30, 2015 . Augy Syaihailatua . The Conversation.
  19. An updated inventory of all known specimens of the coelacanth, Latimeria spp. . Rik Nulens . Lucy Scott . Marc Herbin . Smithiana . 22 September 2011 . 12 October 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180818213827/http://ir.nrf.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10907/374/Nulens_special_publication3.pdf?sequence=1 . 18 August 2018 .
  20. Field surveys on the Indonesian coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis using remotely operated vehicles from 2005 to 2015. . Masamitsu Iwata . Yoshitaka Yabumoto . Toshiro Saruwatari . Shinya Yamauchi . Kenichi Fujii . Rintaro Ishii . Toshiaki Mori . Frensly D. Hukom . Dirhamsyah . Teguh Peristiwady . Augy Syahailatua . Kawilarang W. A. Masengi . Ixchel F. Mandagi . Fransisco Pangalila . Yoshitaka Abe . Bull. Kitakyushu Mus. Nat. Hist. Hum. Hist., Ser. A . 2019. 17. 49–56 . 10.34522/kmnh.17.0_49 .

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