In December 1938, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a museum curator in South Africa, was inspecting the catch of a local fishing trawler when she noticed an unusual blue fish. The specimen, with its limb-like lobed fins and heavy scales, did not match any modern fish species she had ever seen. Courtenay-Latimer sent a sketch to chemist and amateur ichthyologist J.L.B. Smith, who recognized it as a coelacanth—a primitive fish previously believed to have gone extinct 66 million years ago. This discovery shocked the scientific community, as it challenged established timelines of evolutionary history and provided a living link to the prehistoric past. Over the next several decades, researchers successfully located living populations of coelacanths in deep marine canyons off the coast of East Africa and Indonesia, allowing scientists to study their unique physiology in their natural environment. While early search efforts were slow and costly, modern submersible technology has made observing these elusive "living fossils" much more feasible. Today, the coelacanth serves as a powerful reminder of how much of the deep ocean remains unexplored.
Which of the following statements best summarizes the main idea of the passage?
- The discovery of the living coelacanth challenged established scientific timelines and highlighted how much of the deep ocean remains unexplored.Answer
- BMarjorie Courtenay-Latimer first noticed the unusual blue fish with lobed fins while inspecting a local fishing trawler's catch.
- CModern submersible technology has allowed marine researchers to fully map and explore the deepest canyons in the world's oceans.
- DThe coelacanth is the only prehistoric ocean creature that managed to survive the mass extinction event 66 million years ago.