Cloning is Bad! :: essays research papers

   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The coelacanth is an amazing creature full of mystery and exciting discoveries. It was once thought to be extinct for more than360 milllion years ago until one was caught in1938.Its scientific name is Latimeria chalumnae .An adult coelacanth can grow at least to 180 cm in length and weigh 98 kg and each fish has a distinctive pattern of pinkish white blotches that enables scientists to separate one individual from another. The coelacanth has several very recognizable anatomical features.The skull is in two parts with an intra cranial joint which lets it go an up and down movement between them. A strong pair of muscles beneath the skull-base lowers the front half of the skull, giving the coelacanth a powerful bite .The eyes and olfactory organs are in the front part of the skull, and tiny brain and inner ear are in the rear.In the middle of the snout is a large pit filled with a jelly-like sac that opens to the outside through three pores.This sac is called the rostral organ .It may be used to detect weak electric currents and help the coelacanth to find hidden prey. The fins Coelacanths belong to a group of bony lobe-finned fishes and have 8 fins (2 dorsals, 2 pectorals, 2 pelvics, 1 anal and 1 caudal). The first dorsal fin of the coelacanth is much like that of other fishes and can be folded down or erected. The other fins have a well-developed, muscular, limb-like basal lobe projecting from the body wall, and a fringe of unbranched rays like a fan attached to the outer end of the base. The fleshy scale - covered lobe can be bent or rotated so that each fin can work like a paddle or sculling oar. The tailhas three divisions: a characteristic small projecting middle lobe between the longer upper and lower lobes of the fin. The skeleton Most of the skeleton is made of cartilage. In place of the vertebral column, a large notochord extends from the skull to the tip of the caudal fin. The notochord is a thick-walled cartilaginous tube filled with oil-like fluid which is under slight pressure; it is tough and elastic and does the job of a backbone, since no complete vertebrae are developed around it. The scales The body is covered with hard scales with small toothy-like growths called denticles on the outer surface which protect the coelacanth from the rocks and predators. The swimbladder