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The coelacanth has multiple significant aspects in the scientific community. The most obvious aspect is that it shows precisely how coelacanths from a time period spanning millions of years looked like and how the acted. The importance of this is that by directly viewing and being able to observe the habits of this fish, it gives insight into how other fish in the past may have looked like, behaved and a better anatomical understanding. In other word, the coelacanth provides a good measure of comparison to fish and other prehistoric animals that only exist as fossils. The slow evolution and small changes in the coelacanth over the course of time also give insight into its habitat. The deep-sea habitat around eastern Africa where many coelacanths currently reside can be assumed to be an area that has remained fairly invariable for millions of years. Evidence of this is in the few necessary adaptations of the coelacanth to survive.
Another significance of the coelacanth, or more precisely its “rediscovery,” is more of a concept, rather than a direct find in research. It is the idea that there are numerous facts and organisms that are yet to be discovered in the world whether they are living or fossils. An idea such as this makes scientific research, especially in areas such as biology and geology, more compelling since it shows that it is sometimes necessary to revisit and improve concepts that have already been established because these ideas may not always be completely accurate or complete.
