Read the following passage adapted from an essay on twentieth-century natural history:
On December 22, 1938, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, curator of the small East London Museum in South Africa, received a telephone call from the manager of a local shipping line. Captain Hendrik Goosen had just docked the trawler *Nerine* after a fishing run off the mouth of the Chalumna River. Goosen frequently allowed Courtenay-Latimer to search through the trawler's haul for unusual marine specimens.
Upon inspecting the deck of the *Nerine*, Courtenay-Latimer noticed a strange blue fin protruding from beneath a pile of sharks. Uncovering the creature, she found a five-foot-long, 127-pound fish covered in thick, armor-like scales with pale blue spots. Recognizing its potential scientific significance, she attempted to contact J.L.B. Smith, an organic chemistry professor and self-taught ichthyologist at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. However, Smith was away in Knysna for the Christmas holidays and could not be reached.
Faced with the fish's rapid deterioration in the summer heat, Courtenay-Latimer transported the specimen to a local taxidermist, Robert Center, directing him to preserve its skin and skeleton. Regrettably, Center discarded the internal organs before Smith could examine them. When Smith finally arrived in East London on February 16, 1939, he immediately identified the specimen as a coelacanth—a member of an ancient order of lobe-finned fish previously believed to have gone extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period, 66 million years ago.
According to the passage, what specific circumstance prevented J.L.B. Smith from examining the fish immediately after its discovery?
- He was away in Knysna spending the Christmas holidays.Cevap
- BHe was conducting a research fishing run off the mouth of the Chalumna River.
- CHe was supervising taxidermy work at Robert Center's laboratory.
- DHe had concluded that all coelacanth specimens were fully extinct.