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A Fish Caught in Time : The Search for the Coelacanth
by Samantha Weinberg, Fourth Estate
Product Group: Book
Publisher: HarperCollins (2000-04)
ISBN: 0060194952
EAN: 9780060194956
Dewy Decimal #: 597.39
Hardcover: 240 pages
Edition: 1
Release Date: 2000-04-04
SKU: 01984
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: Interior very good, former library copy with cover, stickers, and side stamps
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Just before Christmas in 1938, the young woman curator of a small South African museum spotted a strange-looking fish on a trawler's deck. It was five feet long, with steel-blue scales, luminescent eyes and remarkable limb-like fins, unlike those of any fish she had ever seen. Determined to preserve her unusual find, she searched for days for a way to save it, but ended up with only the skin and a few bones. A charismatic amateur ichthyologist, J.L.B. Smith, saw a thumbnail sketch of the fish and was thunderstruck. He recognized it as a coelacanth (pronounced see-la-kanth), a creature known from fossils dating back 400 million years and thought to have died out with the dinosaurs. With its extraordinary limbs, the coelacanth was believed to be the first fish to crawl from the sea and evolve into reptiles, mammals and eventually mankind. The discovery was immediately dubbed the "greatest scientific find of the century." Smith devoted his life to the search for a complete specimen, a fourteen-year odyssey that culminated in a dramatic act of international piracy. As the fame of the coelacanth spread, so did rumors and obsessions. Nations fought over it, multimillion-dollar expeditions were launched, and submarines hand-built to find it. In 1998, the rumors and the truth came together in a gripping climax, which brought the coelacanth back into the international limelight. A Fish Caught in Time is the entrancing story of the most rare and precious fish in the world--our own great uncle forty million times removed.
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Amazon.com Review
In 1938, an alert young South African museum curator named Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer came upon a curious specimen in a fisherman's nets: a fish with "four limb-like fins and a strange little puppy dog tail," one that she thought resembled not a living being so much as a china ornament. When she could turn up no written descriptions of the find, she turned to other scientists for help, touching off a worldwide wave of interest in the creature that would come to be called the "coelacanth," long thought to be extinct, and now celebrated as one of the world's oldest species. That interest took many forms, writes journalist Samantha Weinberg in her entertaining and instructive case study in scientific detective work. It spurred the development of new deep-sea craft to explore the farthest reaches of the ocean; it touched off more than one controversy over the coelacanth's lineage, and even over which nation claimed sovereignty over its oceanic haunts; and it launched or advanced the careers of dozens of researchers. The coelacanth continues to make news. In 1998, a young American scholar found a specimen in Indonesia, far from the western Indian Ocean waters where the coelacanth was thought to dwell. Although some scientists decried the discovery as a hoax at worst and an aberration at best, the find showed that the creature's range was widespread. It demonstrated, too, that international cooperation was necessary if the coelacanth were to be protected in the future, "continuing to exist," as Weinberg writes, "after this extraordinary duration of time." --Gregory McNamee
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Customer Reviews
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History of people who discovered Coelacanth
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-10-23
First, this is not a natural history, but it is an an engaging if not too critical tale of several scientists who were involved in discovering the Coelacanth.
The scientific information of the whole book is about as much as one would expect from a feature article in the Science section of a better newspaper, nothing more, but the people involved are interesting enough and the book reads very easily. On the whole I can't really reccomend but I enjoyed myself. "A Fish Caught in Time" reminded me a lot of the sorts of science books that used to be popular for clever kids back in the day.
As an aside there is an interesting, and very English, anti-French quality to the book. And for a journalist, its relentlessly upbeat and sunshiney tone is unusual these days for a book that is pretty much biographical sketches involving South Africa.
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it's entertaining.
Rating  (5)
Date: 2006-03-22
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
if you are not into fish and paleontology (like me), it is unlikely you are going to even pick up the book and have a look in a bookshop. but get it and read it anyway. it will be a wonderful entertainment. and unknowingly, you will learn something as well. i believe every subject can be interesting, it just depends who is the writer or who is the teacher. weinberg is great in this regard. try her "pointing from the grave". it is also brilliant, but a warning: it is disturbing.
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Full of interesting history and information in a VERY readable form
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-03-07
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is one of those little books that take a topic readers are curious about and provides them a very readable story that not only satisfies, but surprises. When these books are well done, I find them quite interesting and a way to read for fun and still learn new things.
The Coelacanth is a fish many of us saw as children and it is so weird looking that it immediately captures one's imagination. We have all heard the tale of how science had seen fossils of the creatures and had surmised that it had been extinct from tens of millions of years. Then in 1938 a specimen was caught off South Africa. The book recounts the first realization of what was found by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer of the East London Museum near the port. We also learn about the involvement of the famous (infamous?) J. L. B. Smith and his book "Old Four Legs" with his early and largely incorrect surmises about the fish.
We learn about other discoveries and some real curiosities such as the remarkably accurate silver model of the fish that appears to have come from pre-Columbian meso-America. This book most helpfully, also tells us what scientists have learned about these fish and it is quite stunning.
The is a website dedicated to this fish called dinofish and there are many articles about this amazing creature on the web, but NONE of them are as fun or as informative as this book. Although, a special I saw on one of the educational channels that showed live coelacanths in their environment, which is one of the cooler things I have ever seen.
Still, get and read this book for a fun couple of evenings read. It has helpful pictures and maps. Enjoy!
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Wonderful read; even for a non-ichthyologist
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-09-16
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
The subject of this story is pretty far removed from my usual reading material. After reading it, I was not disappointed that I broadened my horizons.
Samantha Weinberg is a terrific writer who effectively conveyed to me the passion and excitement of science. For anyone who thinks scientists are dull and boring (especially ichthyologists, I mean, come on...!), read this book, you will have a much beter understanding of what makes them tick.
I was particularly taken with the idea that the true unexplored frontier is not outer space, but the vast oceans of this planet. The potential for discovery seem endless.
This book also was very encouraging. Just think, in spite of humankind's seemingly best efforts to pollute and exploit the oceans, a life form stretching back 400 million years could survive. We really aren't in charge here are we?
All in all, a very engaging story.
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A wonderful book
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-04-25
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a wonderfully written book, which blends science with excellent character development and story telling. If you enjoy books that teach you about science, but read like a good novel, then this is a perfect book for you. It is the story of a serendipitous discovery, and how the passion and perseverance of a few overcame politics, personal egos, and various challenges to preserve a fish. Weinberg wrote a wonderful book; I learned a great deal, and I cannot wait to read her next book.
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