Six Ways To Prepare A Coelacanth

 

Coelacanths originally appeared in the fossil record between 415-360 million years ago. The first specimen was discovered and described from a fossilized tail in 1839 by biologist and geologist, Louis Agassiz. Originally thought to have gone extinct, no one dreamed that coelacanths might still be alive today.
So the scientific world was astonished when a live specimen was caught by local fishermen on the coast of East London in South Africa on 22 December 1938. But how do you preserve a fish so researchers can study it for hundreds of years into the future? There are six different methods used by the American Museum of Natural history to preserve its coelacanth specimens for research.