If ever there has been a fossil to embarrass the average evolutionist, then it must be that of the coelocanth. This fish was confidently declared as extinct for a mere 65 million years [I assume that the figure had been rounded off a touch!]Then catastrophically for the long agers, one was hauled up in a fishing net in southern Africa some decades ago! [Talk about keeping a low profile, eh?]
Strangely, the fish was exactly the same in form and shape as its ancestors from '65 million' and even '200 million years' ago. [If this fish had been around all this time without any evidence of having evolved at all - we must conclude that it was singularly lacking in ambition!]
Of course nowadays, with more efficient fishing methods, they are occasionally hauled up from the abyssal regions of the oceans and no longer cause quite so much of a stir.
Look at the photo. Note how the fins could actually be in the right position to have developed into limbs - unless of course, you are not into clutching at wild evolutionary straws. [Note too the fins on the fish's spine which could easily have evolved into a different, new type of 5th and 6th limb altogether - but didn't!]
It is presented as a 'living fossil' - whatever that drivel is supposed to mean! Just about every living thing today is represented in the fossil record!
