Pictures: New "Rebel" Coelacanth Found

"Extinct" Fish

Photograph by Laurent Ballesta, National Geographic

A modern coelacanth swims through South Africa's Sodwana Bay in a file picture.

The coelacanth was thought extinct until 1938, when a living individual was found off Africa's coast.

Until Rebellatrix, scientists thought all coelacanth species had similarly broad tails, Wendruff said.

(See picture: "'Extinct' Coelacanth Hooked in Asia.")

Published May 2, 2012

Fossil Tail

Photograph courtesy Andrew Wendruff and Mark Wilson

The best specimen of a Rebellatrix tail (pictured) is kept at Alberta's Royal Tyrrell Museum, according to Wendruff. Three other specimens are stored at the Peace Region Palaeontology Research Centre in British Columbia.

When Wendruff first examined a fossil Rebellatrix in 2009, "I didn't believe what I was seeing," he said.

It was "only when I found a second, third, and fourth ... that I realized we had something real and something significant."

Published May 2, 2012

Built for Speed

Photograph and illustration courtesy Andrew Wendruff

The largest known Rebellatrix specimen (pictured) shows that the predator was more than 3 feet (0.9 meter) long. That's not unusual for coelacanths, which can grow up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, Wendruff said.

Based on the known specimens, it seems Rebellatrix first appears in the fossil record about 250 million years ago—immediately after the Permian extinction, when 90 percent of life on Earth was snuffed out by an unknown cause.

The massive loss of life "possibly left a gap in this lifestyle" of fast-moving ocean predators, allowing Rebellatrix to fill that role, Wendruff speculated.

Published May 2, 2012

Former Coast

Photograph courtesy M. W. H. Wilson

The Rebellatrix fossils were collected in the 1950s and '80s on the rocky slopes of Wapiti Lake Provincial Park (pictured) in British Columbia, Canada.

This area was the western coast of the supercontinent Pangaea at the time Rebellatrix swam the seas.

(See a prehistoric time line.)

Published May 2, 2012

Fishy Grin

Photograph by Laurent Ballesta, National Geographic

A coelacanth stares down the camera in South Africa's Sodwana Bay in an undated picture. (Watch video: "Finding the Coelacanth.")

Over time, the slow-moving body form seen in modern coelacanths ultimately won out, while speedy Rebellatrix was replaced by sharks and other cruising predators, study leader Wendruff said.

"I like to say Rebellatrix was a spectacular failure."

The new coelacanth species is described in the current issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Published May 2, 2012

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Photograph courtesy Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Published May 2, 2012