Gombessa I – The Coelacanth (2013)

The first Gombessa expedition was the result of many years of scientific, logistical and human preparation, and enabled for the first time observations and scientific experiments to be carried out in contact with a living coelacanth. Locally known as Gombessa, the coelacanth measures two meters long and was once thought to have become extinct 70 million years ago. However, this rare fish, when discovered alive in 1938 has come to represent one of the most important zoological discoveries of the 20th century. It is indeed seen as the “transition animal”; from backboned fish to the earliest four-legged vertebrate land animals, and with its lobe fins and “primitive lung”;, this fish is the longed-for living proof of early life’s transition from water to land, which took place 370 million years ago. For over a century, the coelacanth has sparked intense debate between scientists and creationists. Thus, geneticists, paleontologists and biologists from the French National Museum of Natural History, the South African National Biodiversity Institute, and the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity were brought together by Laurent Ballesta for this mission achieved in 2013.

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