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The coelacanth


Therion

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The coelacanth has evolved little from prehistoric times. As a result, Stanford scientists believe that analysis of its genome could provide a basis for studying how genes changed to allow life on land.

A prehistoric fish that until 1938 was thought to be extinct has caught the eye of geneticists at the School of Medicine who hope to sequence the ancient genome to learn how animals evolved to live on land.

The 5-foot, 130-pound fish in question, called the coelacanth, ekes out an existence in cool, deep-water caves off the Comoro Islands in the Indian Ocean and northern Indonesia. Its lobed fins, skeleton structure and large, round scales are practically unchanged from its fossilized ancestors. This resemblance is what makes it an attractive target for sequencing, according to work published in last week

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