A Fish Caught in Time

Posted on 16 January 2018 by Samantha Weinberg

Just before Christmas in 1938, the young woman curator of a small South African museum spotted a strange looking fish on a trawler s deck It was five feet long, with steel blue scales, luminescent eyes and remarkable limb like fins, unlike those of any fish she had ever seen Determined to preserve her unusual find, she searched for days for a way to save it, but ended up with only the skin and a few bones.A charismatic amateur ichthyologist, J.L.B Smith, saw a thumbnail sketch of the fish and was thunderstruck He recognized it as a coelacanth pronounced see la kanth , a creature known from fossils dating back 400 million years and thought to have died out with the dinosaurs With its extraordinary limbs, the coelacanth was believed to be the first fish to crawl from the sea and evolve into reptiles, mammals and eventually mankind The discovery was immediately dubbed the greatest scientific find of the century Smith devoted his life to the search for a complete specimen, afourteen year odyssey that culminated in a dramatic act of international piracy As the fame of the coelacanth spread, so did rumors and obsessions Nations fought over it, multimillion dollar expeditions were launched, and submarines hand built to find it In 1998, the rumors and the truth came together in a gripping climax, which brought the coelacanth back into the international limelight A Fish Caught in Time is the entrancing story of the most rare and precious fish in the world our own great uncle forty million times removed. Read A Fish Caught in Time author Samantha Weinberg – kino-fada.fr This fascinating history of the Coelacanth is beautifully written, lighthearted and fascinating A brilliant yarn in every sense of the word, it tells the story of how the Coelacanth went from being a fossil considered to be extinct for 50 70 million years to being one of the few distinguished living fossils of out time.The story takes us back to East London, South Africa 1938 when a young museum curator, Marjorie Courtenay Latimer went down to examine a trawler catch and found a fish that was This fascinating history of the Coelacanth is beautifully written, lighthearted and fascinating A brilliant yarn in every sense of the word, it tells the story of how the Coelacanth went from being a fossil considered to be extinct for 50 70 million years to being one of the few distinguished living fossils of out time.The story takes us back to East London, South Africa 1938 when a young museum curator, Marjorie Courtenay Latimer went down to examine a trawler catch and found a fish that was so beautiful that t...This is what I look for in a book on a scholarly subject The author handles the facts well, but is able to make the people involved come alive, allowing the reader to care about them Weinberg s good writing makes the transitions from fact to biography in such a manner that you never feel disconnected from the story of the search I found myself getting excited about the search and the trip to a far away island to collect a sp...This was my second time with this one The first time was several years ago when it was a new ish release, long before kids This time it was a morning read aloud selection K gave it a 3, L gave it a 5no surprise there, she loves the true stories of weird and wonderful things It doesn t get too much weirder than the coelacanth This is the story of the odd living fossil and how it was identified by the scientific community In particular, I love the story of Marjorie Courtenay Latimer, th This was my second time with this one The first time was several years ago when it was a new ish release, long before kids This time it was a morning read aloud selection K gave it a 3, L gave it a 5no surprise there, she loves the true stories of weird and wonderful things It doesn t get too much weirder than the coelacanth This is the story of the odd living fossil and how it was identifi...Old Four Legs While that may sound like someone leaving a pub run, it s really the affectionate name given to the Coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct until its mind altering appearance in 1938 Since then,have surfaced with their electrifying blue color and prehistoric everything else They were supposed to be extinct How amazing Like Jurassic Park underwater I first became fascinated with this living fossil thanks to a National Geographic issue dedicated to this strange be Old Four Legs While that may sound like someone leaving a pub run, it s really the affectionate name given to the Coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct until its mind altering appearance in 1938 Since then,have surfaced with their electrifying blue color and prehistoric everything else They were supposed to be extinct How amazing Like Jurassic Park underwater I first b...This is a well written book of good pace and very good explanation and with the subject matter that was necessary, to stop it turning text book.In 1938 a fish was caught by a fishing boat off the coast of South Africa The local museum curator took it from the fishermen, and despite it being Christmas time, set about trying to contact people to assist with the identification The fish was a Coelacanth, th...This is both an educative and entertaining book about the search for a prehistoric fish Long believed extinct, the Coelacanth was first discovered off the waters of South Africa in the Indian Ocean in 1938 Marjorie Courtenay Latimer was a young curator at the East London museum when she recognized there was something odd in one of the fish brought to her by a fishing boat She contacted J.L.B Smith, a recognized scientist who would become obsessed with the living fossil and would later name This is both an educative and entertaining book about the search for a prehistoric fish Long believed extinct, the Coelacanth was first discovered off the waters of South Africa in the Indian Ocean in 1938 Marjorie Courtenay Latimer was a young curator at the East London museum when she recognized there was something odd in one of the fish brought to her by a fishing boat She contacted J.L.B Smith, a recognized scientist who would become obsessed with the living fossil and would later name the fish Latimeria Chalumnae, after Marjorie The first two thirds of the book read like a suspense novel, with international politics and intrigue mounting as the search for the Coelacanth heats up in the waters surrounding the Comoros Samantha Weinberg writes in an enga...In A Fish Caught In Time Samantha Weinberg has written the fantastic and fascinating story of the discovery of the coelacanth Weinberg was able to undertake direct research for the book including speaking directly with many of the people closely involved with the story and the book reads like a great mystery story In the video below Weinberg reads from her book and touches on the journey of discovery that she herself went on in researching the story Her enthusiasm is infectious and having fi In A Fish Caught In Time Samantha Weinberg has written the fantastic and fascinating story of the discovery of the coelacanth Weinberg was able to undertake direct research for the book including speaking directly with ...This is not really about the coelacanth intself, but is, instead, about the men and women involved in first realizing what it was and what it meant when one was caught by fishermen in 1938, and about the quest to find out where they live and how they function I suppose you could call it a modern history of the coelacanth, though a fairly shallow one I would have likedback story information about the first coelacanth fossils found and what people thought about them when they were discove This is not really about the coelacanth intself, but is, instead, about the men and women involved in first realizing what it was and wha...This is one of my favourite non fiction books of all time If you are interested in fish or fossils or conservation it s for you And if you re not particularly into any of those, read it anyway It is entertaining and fast paced, and so readab...Excellent book The writing grabs you from the first page and reels you in no pun intended I m not even a big fan of fish, but at times I couldn t put this down I d definitely be interested in readingby this author on other subjects, as she made this one so accessible.

English
16 January 2018

Samantha Weinberg