Family LATIMERIIDAE Berg 1940 (Coelacanths)

Revised 31 Jan. 2023
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Latimeria Smith 1939ia (L. suffix), belonging to: Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer (1907–2004), Curator, East London Museum, who discovered this species in a fisherman’s catch and mailed a sketch to Smith, who identified it as a living coelacanth, formerly known only from Mesozoic fossils

Latimeria chalumnae Smith 1939 of the Chalumna River, just off its mouth in the Indian Ocean, west of East London, Cape Colony, South Africa, type locality

Latimeria menadoensis Pouyaud, Wirjoatmodjo, Rachmatika, Tjakrawidjaja, Hadiaty & Hadie 1999ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Menado (actually spelled Manado) Tua Island, Indonesia, type locality [in a case of scientific piracy, the authors rushed into print the description of the second coelacanth, denying the right to marine biologists Mark and Arnaz Erdmann, who discovered the species and were seeking more specimens for study]