Old Fourlegs
Presented by Anthony Smith
Three hundred and sixty million years ago, coelacanths, primitive fishes related to the marine ancestors of amphibians, reptiles and mammals, swam and crawled around the seas. They were thought to have become extinct 75 million years ago. Just before Christmas 1938, quite by chance, a strange blue lizard-like creature was spotted in a pile of discarded fish at a South African fish market. It was identified as a coelacanth, and the 80 specimens caught since have given zoologists a rare opportunity to discover just how this ' living fossil ' uses its curious limb-like fins.
Those taking part:
DR HUMPHREY GREENWOOD and DR PETER FOREY of the British Museum of Natural History. Producer MICHAEL BRIGHT