Ancient Fish Found: Sulawesi, Indonesia

It's all happening in Indonesia at the moment. Natural disasters, earthquakes everywhere along the archipelago, scientists finding snakes that change colour, and now, another bunch of scientists finding 65 million year old fish.

According to a CNews Science report scientists working off Indonesia's Sulawesi island have photographed five primitive fish once thought to have died along with the dinosaur.

The fish called a coelacanth, was first found alive in 1938 off the coast of Africa. It had been thought to have become extinct some 65 million years ago, and the find of the so-called "living fossil" ignited worldwide interest. In 1998 another of the fish was found 10,000 kilometres away in the waters off northern Sulawesi. Several others specimens have since been found in both locations.

In June this year a joint Japanese and Indonesian team photographed five of the fish in different spots in the Sulawesi sea, according to Indonesian Oceanographic Centre researcher Kasim Moosa. Moosa said the snapshots were taken at a depth of 150 metres but declined to reveal the location the photos were taken. A second expedition was planned in the area.

The coelacanth is a powerful predator with highly mobile, limb-like fins. It is about 1.5 metres long and weighs around 45 kilograms on average. Unlike most other fish it gives birth to live young rather than laying eggs.