King of the sea
| Indonesian coelacanth Temporal range: Holocene, 0 Ma |
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| A preserved specimen of Latimeria menadoensis, displayed in Tokyo Sea Life Park (Kasai Rinkai Suizokuen), Japan | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sarcopterygii |
| Order: | Coelacanthiformes |
| Family: | Latimeriidae |
| Genus: | Latimeria |
| Species: | L. menadoensis |
| Binomial name | |
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Latimeria menadoensis Pouyaud, Wirjoatmodjo, Rachmatika, Tjakrawidjaja, Hadiaty & Hadie, 1999 |
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| L. menadoensis range in violet | |
The Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis, Indonesian: raja laut) is one of two living species of coelacanth, identifiable by its brown color. It is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. The other species, L. chalumnae (West Indian Ocean coelacanth) is listed as critically endangered.
On September 18, 1997, Arnaz and Mark Erdmann, traveling in Indonesia on their honeymoon, saw a strange fish enter the market at Manado Tua, on the island of Sulawesi. Mark thought it was a gombessa (Comoro coelacanth), although it was brown, not blue. An expert noticed their pictures on the Internet and realized its significance. Subsequently, the Erdmanns contacted local fishermen and asked for any future catches of the fish to be brought to them. A second Indonesian specimen, 1.2 m in length and weighing 29 kg., was captured alive on July 30, 1998. It lived for six hours, allowing scientists to photographically document its coloration, fin movements and general behavior. The specimen was preserved and donated to the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense (MZB), part of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).
DNA testing revealed that this specimen differed genetically from the Comorian population. Superficially, the Indonesian coelacanth, locally called raja laut ("King of the Sea"), appears to be the same as those found in the Comoros except that the background coloration of the skin is brownish-gray rather than bluish. This fish was described in a 1999 issue of Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des sciences Paris by Pouyaud et al. It was given the scientific name Latimeria menadoensis. In 2005, a molecular study estimated the divergence time between the two coelacanth species to be 40–30 mya.
On November 5, 2014 a fisherman found a specimen of this species in his net. It was the seventh Indonesian coelacanth found in Indonesian waters since 1998.
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Wikipedia