United States
£ GBP
This volume is the product of several groups of scientists working independently who finally came together to share their knowledge of coelacanths and more efficiently utilize Latimeria chalumnae tissues, as well as to work for the conservation of Latimeria, the last survivor of an entire class of fishes that once dominated the earth's shallow seas. The book was born out of a 1987 meeting to discuss research on Latimeria and develop plans for its conservation. The meeting led to the formation of the Coelacanth Conservation Council which produced this volume in honour of the 50th anniversary of J.L.B. Smith's original description of the species in 1939.
The different chapters in this edited collection discuss systematics and evolution; morphology and physiology; reproduction, feeding and parasites; ecology and conservation; as well as an inventory of all known specimens of L. chalumnae, and a bibliography of all works on this fish.
"By delivering this message as its bottom line, this book may well rank as the most important contribution to coelacanth biology ever published."
– Copeia 3, 1992
