The Poster Fish for Cryptozoology

The coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) is a genuine living fossil. Until a live specimen was discovered in 1938 off the coast of South Africa, coelacanths were thought to have gone extinct in the Late Cretaceous around 66 million years ago. They are closely related to lungfish and primarily live in the Comoro Islands, which have issued 12 different postage stamps featuring these fish. This specimen (not live) was obtained in the Comoros in 1974 by US ichthyologist John E. McCosker for the Birch Aquarium in the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. Because of its status as a supposedly extinct animal now known to be alive, it has become the "poster fish" for cryptozoology.