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Events on Thursday 22 December 1938 1
1938Living coelacanth discoveredA fish thought extinct for 66 million years is found off South AfricaMuseum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer spotted an unusual fish in a trawler's catch near East London, South Africa. Ichthyologist J. L. B. Smith identified it as a coelacanth, a group known previously only from fossils.