By Rebecca
Morelle, Science reporter, BBC World Service
The genetic
secrets of a "living fossil" have been revealed by scientists.
Researchers
sequenced the genome of the coelacanth: a deep-sea fish that closely resembles
its ancestors, which lived at least 300 million years ago.
The study
found that some of the animal's genes evolved very slowly, giving it its
primitive appearance.
The work also
shed light on how the fish was related to the first land-based animals.
The coelacanth
has four large, fleshy fins, which some scientists believe could have been the
predecessors of limbs.
It had been
suggested that this fish was closely related to early tetrapods - the first
creatures to drag themselves out of the ocean, giving rise to life on land.
But the
study, published in the
journal Nature, suggested that
another fish called the lungfish, which also has four limbs, had more genes in
common with land-based animals.
Slow to change
The coelacanth
can reach up to 2m-long and is found lurking in caves deep beneath the waves.
It was thought
to have been extinct for millions of years, until it turned up in a
trawlerman's net off the coast of Africa in
1938.
Its ancient
appearance has earned it the title "living fossil" - but it is so
elusive, that it has been hard to study.
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