The discovery of the coelacanth

Witness History

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, History

4.5 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1938, South African museum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer discovered a coelacanth, a fish that was believed to have been extinct for 65 million years.

It is thought to be our ancestor and the missing link between how fish evolved into four-legged amphibians.

This was produced and presented by Rachel Naylor, in collaboration with BBC Archives.

Eyewitness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.

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Transcript

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0:59.6	Today I'm taking you back to 1930s South Africa when a fish was discovered that was believed
1:04.3	to have been extinct for 65 million years.
1:07.2	It is thought to be our ancestor and the missing link between how fish evolved into four-legged amphibians.
1:13.0	This is the story of the sealicamp.
1:15.3	Of all the tales of life on earth, there is one more fabulous than all the others,
1:21.2	the story of how we got our legs.
1:25.1	Scientists believe that long ago a fish came onto the land, grew legs, and started to walk.
1:31.3	It is one of the most crucial events in the history of life, because that animal is our ancestor.
1:38.3	But how and why that fish grew legs is one of the biggest mysteries in evolution.
1:48.8	It baffled the finest minds in science for over a century.
1:51.2	That is, until 1938.
	...

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