Calcutta Residents Claim Coelacanth Fished Out of Ganges River

Is this a Coelacanth or a Grouper?

austriantimes.at - Indian paleontologists are heading to Calcutta in West Bengal after locals claimed to have fished a prehistoric Coelacanth out of the water.

Coelacanths were believed to have been extinct since the end of the Cretaceous period until the first specimen was found off the east coast of South Africa in 1938.

Since then they have been found in the Comoros, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar.

But the experts are trying to work out how what would be the biggest ever Coelacanth specimen weighing 320 kilos came to be floating down the Ganges.

The fish, eight feet long and three feet wide, had a cut on its stomach and some of the fins had been torn free.

Official stands by kids who raised the alarm saying: "Initially we thought that a big sea animal was coming to devour us, it was only when we got out the water we realised it was dead."

Experts believe that if it is a Coelacanth the fish may have been caught and dumped by fishermen as it almost worthless because the flesh exudes oils even when dead, giving the flesh a foul flavour and a disgusting smell.

(Coelacanth)

(An Orange-Spotted Grouper, indigenous to Indian coastal waters)

NOTE: well, this doesn't look like a Coelacanth to me. The anatomy just doesn't match. Besides, I really doubt a prehistoric species only known to survive in saltwater would be found in the Ganges River. Orange-Spotted Groupers, indigenous to Indian coastal waters, can be found in tidal areas and estuarine waters...Lon

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