Norman Leonard, age 16, of Lemon Grove, Calif., for his question:

What is a coelacanth?

Coelacanth is pronounced see luh kanth and it is the name of a strange fish, often called a living fossil. The first one ever to be seen by modern man was dredged up from the deep ocean off the coast of Africa in the year 1939: The crew of the fishing boat thought that their astounding catch was worth taking ashore to be studied by experts. But thought they did not realize that the coelacanth had been/extinct for some 60 million years. The internal organs, and some of    the fish's bores, were lost before it reached land. But there was enough of him for the experts to be quite sure that he was indeed a living fossil.

To understand why the coelacanth stirred up such a fuss in the world of science, we must first take a look at the long history of the fishes, their development and their scientific classifications. There is abundant evidence that life on earth began in the watery ocean. The first backboned animals came into being about 400 million years ago  and they were fish. They were rather small, armor coated creatures with neither teeth nor jaws. None of these original vertebrates survived, though our lampreys and hagfish are somewhat like them.

The sharks developed some 300 million years ago, and they did survive. Though they are vertebrates, they are classed as the cartilage fishes because their skeleton is soft gristle. A t about this time, the true, bony fishes developed and most of the fishy animals in the sea are descended from them. From this group developed the flat fish, the streamlined tuna and the silvery mackerel. But the most interesting development was a group called the fringed fins fish. These fancy fish were the ancestors of the amphibians and the reptiles which were later to brave life on the dry land. This fishy family had their fibs at the end of stubby limbs, which is why the coelacanth was such a sensation. His fins were fixed at the end of stubby limbs   and the scientists were sure that these fringe fins, or lobe finned fishes said goodbye to the world along with the dinosaurs.

The living fossil had seven coarse fins fixed to his body by fleshy stubs. His tail was a triangular wedge of. flesh, fringed with fin. He was five feet long and covered with large blue scales. The experts had to admit that the ancient fish family was not extinct and that perhaps more specimens could be found. Another was found off the coast of Africa in 1952 and still another in the Indian Ocean. These later specimens were properly preserved for scientific study.