Scientists recently revealed that one of the rarest fish on the planet, the coelacanth, actually lives for well over 100 years. They used a new scale analysis method to determine the age of these remarkable-looking and mysterious creatures.
The rougheye rockfish are among the longest-living fish and have a maximum lifespan of at least 205 years, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Their habitat is in coastal waters from California to Japan.
Pieces of tiny fossil skull found in Fort Worth have been identified as 100 million-year-old coelacanth bones, according to paleontologist John F. Graf, Southern Methodist University, Dallas. The coelacanth has one of the longest lineages — 400 million years — of any animal.
The Great Lakes Sturgeon can grow up to 8 feet long and easily live up to 150 years old. Guc says that aside from being the largest fish in the Great Lakes, the sturgeon species is also the most prehistoric.
The coelacanth was long considered a "living fossil" because scientists thought it was the sole remaining member of a taxon otherwise known only from fossils, with no close relations alive, and that it evolved into roughly its current form approximately 400 million years ago.
Around 530 million years ago: Haikouichthys, the earliest fish species discovered, evolved as one of the earliest vertebrate organisms in the world. It has a notochord and multiple gills. 540–485 million years ago: The Myllokunmingia species, a segmented water fish, evolved from previous Craniata species.
Ichthyostega lived between 370 to 362 million years ago. Their extinction was due to a large-scale fish extinction about 360 million years ago. This extinction event caused a reset to the evolution of life on earth.
Granddad the lungfish was 109 years old at the time of his death, researchers recently shared. They hope their research can help protect the species in the wild. CHICAGO — The Shedd Aquarium had the world's oldest aquarium fish — a 109-year-old Australian lungfish named Granddad, new research has shown.
Meet Methuselah, thought to be world's oldest living aquarium fish. SAN FRANCISCO — Meet Methuselah, the fish that likes to eat fresh figs, get belly rubs and is believed to be the oldest living aquarium fish in the world. In the Bible, Methuselah was Noah's grandfather and was said to have lived to be 969 years old.
Instead a recent study from the University of Copenhagen discovered a Greenland shark they estimated (with 95.5% certainty) to be between the age of 272 and 512 years of age. Establishing a mid-point puts the shark's estimated birth year at… 1627! This makes the Greenland shark the longest-living vertebrate on Earth.
A fossil fish that predates dinosaurs and was thought to have gone extinct has been found alive in the West Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar. The fish named coelacanth was accidentally rediscovered by a group of South African shark hunters, according to reports.
Living coelacanths are found in undersea canyons at depths between 100 and 500 metres. They belong to an ancient group of fishes whose origins can be traced back 420 million years. They have eight fins, large eyes and a small mouth, and a unique pattern of white spots allowing each fish to be individually identified.
480 mya: Fishes
Agnathans, or jawless fishes, are the earliest fishes and the first true vertebrates. They are bottom-feeders, covered almost entirely in armor plates. As jaws evolve in the bony fishes and early sharks, jawless fishes have trouble competing.
Enter Leedsichthys problematicus. The extinct fish—thought to be the largest on record—lived about 165 million years ago in Europe and South America. It grew to at least 16.5 meters in length and might have weighed 45 metric tons, which means it was larger even than today's whale shark.
The oldest living land animal is a 190-year-old Seychelles giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea hololissa) named Jonathan. The tortoise lives on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean after having been brought there by people from the Seychelles in 1882.
The first ancestors of fish, or animals that were probably closely related to fish, were Pikaia, Haikouichthys and Myllokunmingia. These three genera all appeared around 530 Ma. Pikaia had a primitive notochord, a structure that could have developed into a vertebral column later.
Creme Puff is the oldest cat ever at 38 years and 3 days old. She was born on August 3, 1967, and died on August 6, 2005.
The oldest fossils of animals resembling a fish date back between 518 million and 530 million years ago. Discovered in China and called Haikouichthys, these animals were about an inch long (2.5 cm) and had a head with seven to eight slits at its base that looked like gills.
The primitive-looking coelacanth (pronounced SEEL-uh-kanth) was thought to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
After being found alive, the coelacanth was dubbed a "living fossil," a description now shunned by scientists. "By definition, a fossil is dead, and the coelacanths have evolved a lot since the Devonian," said biologist and study co-author Marc Herbin of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
Tish is the oldest goldfish ever recorded at 43 years old.
It died on August 6, 1999, after being won at a fair in 1956. This fish was recognized as the oldest goldfish ever a year before passing away.
Known as Palaeospondylus gunni, the creature was eel-like and existed roughly 390 million years ago. Palaeospondylus was first discovered in 1890 in Scotland but researchers found it difficult to place it on the evolutionary tree since the creature was only 5 cm in length.
The Coelacanth specimen caught in 1938 is still considered to be the zoological find of the century. This 'living fossil' comes from a lineage of fishes that was thought to have been extinct since the time of the dinosaurs.
The Devils Hole Pupfish is the Rarest Fish in the World
It's that cool. There is so much to write home about the Devils Hole pupfish and its crazy-alluring environment, so—please—read on! But if you take away one thing—and one thing only—let it be this: it's the rarest fish in the whole world.