Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #coelacanths
Most recents (3)
After an long hiatus caused by a ridiculous workload, it’s time for another #TetZoocryptomegathread, in which I examine the backstory to a cryptozoological photo or bit of film. This time, we look at the Lake Dakataua ‘Migo’ monster footage of 1994. Warning: LONG thread ahead… 
I’ll tell you now that this case is complex. It involves crocodile systematics and behaviour, the ‘surviving archaeocete’ hypothesis, mosasaur life appearance as depicted in #palaeoart, and the world of the pre-internet cryptozoological community…
What is the #Migo?... I hear (some of) you cry. Also known as the Masali or Migaua, it’s an alleged mystery creature of New Britain’s Lake Dakataua, said to be about 4m long, and to be a flippered, long-tailed, long-snouted, aquatic, predatory animal…
Time for another #TetZoocryptomegathread, in which we examine the backstory to a photo or film said to depict a cryptid, or monster. This time, we’re not looking at a photo claimed to be of a live animal BUT at photos which depict a very dead one: a rotted carcass, in fact…
I am of course talking about the ZUIYO-MARU CARCASS: the large, decomposed body of a sea creature, ‘captured’ by accident in the nets of the Japanese fishing vessel the Zuiyo-maru on April 25th 1977 while they were about 48km off the east coast of Christchurch, New Zealand…
The name ‘Zuiyo-maru’ has been written in several ways in the literature (as ‘Zuiyomaru’ or ‘Zuiyo Maru’, for example). I’m here going to follow the style used in the 1978 report on the carcass (Zuiyo-maru). And the Zuiyo-maru carcass will be called the ZMC from hereon!
Breaking news: Kararusman et al. report a c 13Ma divergence in Indonesian #coelacanths which could mean the recognition of a new 3rd species; it also hints at the presence of as-yet-unconfirmed populations further east... nature.com/articles/s4159…
.... their description of #coelacanths as 'basal veretebrates' is odd though. No way is it right to think of coelacanths as 'basal': they're deeply nested in Gnathostomata, Osteichthyes AND Sarcopterygii!!
Ha ha... and this isn't breaking news at all, I just noticed that it was published in January 2020. Oops, sorry.
