Coelacanth
Coelacanth
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| シーラカンス | |||
| Character Data | |||
| Romaji | Shīrakansu
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| Debut | Kemono Friends 3 | ||
| Animal Data | |||
| Scientific Name | Latimeria chalumnae
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| Distribution | Western Indian Ocean along the eastern to southeastern coast of Africa
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| Diet | Carnivore
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| Avg. Lifespan | 48 years
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| Read More | West Indian Ocean coelacanth
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| Conservation | 
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| Coelacanth | KF3 | Gallery |
Coelacanth is a type of fish Friend and the very first Friend based on a real fish species in the franchise. She was revealed alongside Japanese Pancake Devilfish for the Numazu Deep Sea Aquarium Collaboration with Kemono Friends 3 on May 26, 2023.
Appearance
Coelacanth has very fair skin and light blue, almost cloudy eyes. Her hair is incredibly long, reaching past her knees. It is dark blue with lighter blue specks, very much like the real life species. Similar to the bird Friends, who have their wings on their heads, her fins are on her head and at the tips on her hair. These fins are a mix of white, dark blue, and gray. She also has two tiny braids on either side of her head, held together by two equally tiny, glowing blue beads.
The clothing seems to have been inspired by fantasy style Roman gladiator-esque armor: the royal blue breastplate has a scale-patterned, triangle-shaped cloth that just covers her navel and has a small bow between the plates. Her leather-strip skirt is topped by a white cloth waistband, adorned by a blue metal belt buckle with the Japari Park logo. She has dark blue wrist and ankle guards with scale patterns, much like her top. Lastly, she has brown, strappy sandals.
Series Appearances
| Media | Role | |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Kemono Friends 3 | ↪ Minor character, playable character |
In Real Life
Coelacanths (pron. SEE-luh-kanth) are a group of lobe-finned fish in the class Actinistia, closely related to lungfish and tetrapods (which includes amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) than to ray-finned fish. It is a massive fish, averaging around 2 m (6.5 feet) in length and about 80 kg (176 lb) in weight. West Indian Ocean coelacanths (Latimeria chalumnae) have a deep, royal blue color with lighter blue spots dotting their scales; this patterning and coloration provides them with camouflage useful for ambushing prey and avoiding predators. Their large eyes have special visual cell rods to help them see in the dark environments they inhabit.
The West Indian coelacanth is a widely but very sparsely distributed species inhabiting deep waters, making them difficult to find. They are mostly seen around the rim of the western Indian Ocean, from South Africa northward along the East African coast; this is historically known to entail the waters around Madagascar, Mozambique, and the Comoro Islands, the latter region knowing the fish as "gombessa". The fish are usually found between depths of 180 to 210 m (590 to 690 feet) below sea level; they tend to be found in and around the underwater caves common at these depths. Evidence suggests they use these caves as protection from predators during the daytime, emerging at night to hunt in the surrounding area under the cover of dusk. This nocturnal lifestyle in a deep-water environment dangerous for human exploration makes the coelacanth particularly difficult to locate and study, meaning little is known about its life and behavior.
Coelacanths are opportunistic feeders. Only four prey species are currently known: the cardinal fish, splendid alfonsino, rattail fish and goatsbeard brotula. Some individuals have been seen performing "headstands" to feed, a behavior which allows the fish to "slurp" prey from cave floors and crevices; this unusual action is made possible by the coelacanth's ability to move both its upper and lower jaw, a unique trait seen only in vertebrates that have bony skeletons.
The coelacanth was first scientifically recognized from a specimen which was collected in South Africa in 1938 by Hendrik Goosen, captain of the fishing boat Nerine, who pulled up the "strange" creature during a fishing trip in the Chalumna River. Upon his return home, he called his friend Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a South African museum official and natural historian, to see if she wanted to inspect this most recent catch, going to great lengths to avoid any damage to the specimen during the trip back to shore. Courtenay-Latimer could not find a description matching this odd fish in any of her books, and her friend and colleague Professor J. L. B. Smith, a South African icthyologist, was away for Christmas. As she was unable to preserve the fish long enough for him to return, Marjorie sent the animal to a taxidermist to be processed and preserved.
Upon Professor Smith's return, he immediately recognized the animal as a coelacanth, a species known to western science only from fossils and thought to have been extinct for 65 million years. Professor Smith named the fish Latimeria chalumnae in honor of Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer and the Chalumna River from which the specimen was retrieved. The two scientists received immediate recognition, and the coelacanth was declared a "living fossil". A brass plaque commemorating Latimer and Goosen's discovery can be found at Latimer's Landing, a dock near the mouth of the Chalumna River, and the original taxidermied specimen is still on display in the East London Museum in South Africa.
Between 1991 and 1994, there was an estimated 30% total population reduction of the coelacanth due to accidental catching in fishing nets. By 1998, the total population was estimated to be 500 or fewer, putting the species' survival in dire straits. In 1989, the coelacanth was added to Appendix I (threatened with extinction) by the IUCN. According to CITES, "The treaty forbids international trade for commercial purposes and regulates all trade, including sending specimens to museums, through a system of permits."
Trivia
Friend Trivia
- The species that this fish Friend is based on is the West Indian Ocean coelacanth.
- Coelacanth is the first Friend to be based on a real-world, extant fish species.
- Although Jinmengyo is also based on a real-world fish—a carp— the carp known as jinmengyo are regarded as cryptozoological.
- Her eyes possess a cloudiness which, while somewhat reminiscent of the highlight-lacking eyes extinct-species Friends have, they are also much like the cloudy blue eyes of her real animal counterpart.
Animal Trivia
- West Indian Ocean coelacanths have been recorded at depths of 243 m (797 feet) below sea level.
- The most shallow depth they can typically be spotted at is 54 meters (177 feet) below sea level.
- The coelacanth is today represented by only two extant species in the genus Latimeria: the previously mentioned West Indian Ocean coelacanth, and the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis).
- They are oviviparous, meaning they retain their eggs internally until they hatch.
- All coelacanths have different individual color markings.
- Coelacanths are considered poor food for human consumption, as their meat tastes foul and can cause diarrhea.
- According to DNA analysis, the Indonesian coelacanth is more primitive than the African coelacanth. This is evidenced by the appearance of their young: Indonesian coelacanth fry have longer fins than their adult forms, similar to ancient coelacanths, while the young of African coelacanth look nearly identical to adult specimens.
- The first coelacanth known to have been caught by fishing rod was an Indonesian coelacanth, hooked in Raja Ampat in December 2018.
References
- West Indian Ocean Coelacanth Wikipedia Page
- Locket, N. A. (1973). "Retinal Structure in Latimeria chalumnae". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 266 (881): 493–518. Bibcode:1973RSPTB.266..493L. doi:10.1098/rstb.1973.0054. ISSN 0080-4622. JSTOR 2417305. PMID 4148821.
- Fricke, H.; Hissmann, K. (2000-03-28). "Feeding ecology and evolutionary survival of the living coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae". Marine Biology. 136 (2): 379–386. doi:10.1007/s002270050697. ISSN 0025-3162. S2CID 84173448.
- Fraser, Michael D.; Henderson, Bruce A.S.; Carstens, Pieter B.; Fraser, Alan D.; Henderson, Benjamin S.; Dukes, Marc D.; Bruton, Michael N. (26 March 2020). "Live coelacanth discovered off the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, South Africa". South African Journal of Science. 116 (3/4 March/April 2020). doi:10.17159/sajs.2020/7806.
- White, Nicholas (2016-03-04). "ADW: Latimeria chalumnae: INFORMATION". Animaldiversity.org. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
- Plante, Raphaël; Fricke, Hans; Hissmann, Karen (1998). "Coelacanth population, conservation and fishery activity at Grande Comore, West Indian Ocean". Marine Ecology Progress Series. 166: 231–236. Bibcode:1998MEPS..166..231P. doi:10.3354/meps166231. ISSN 0171-8630. JSTOR 24827051.