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Are the Indonesian and Western Indian Ocean Coelacanths Conspecific: A Prediction

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Abstract

It is hypothesized that the ancestor of the extant western Indian Ocean and Indonesian populations of Latimeria was continuously distributed along the deeper coasts of massed Africa–Madagascar–Eurasia in early geologic time. The collision of India with Eurasia, roughly 50 MY ago, caused the formation of the Himalayan Mountains and subsequent developement of numerous rivers. The rivers, which flow down both coasts of India, and areas even further east, deposited, and continue to deposit, great amounts of silt along both coasts of India. The siltation destroyed possible coelacanth habitats, thus isolating coelacanth populations to the west of India from those to the east and allowing them to diverge.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Fishes MRC-159, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C, 20560-0159, U.S.A. (e-mail

    Victor G. Springer

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  1. Victor G. Springer
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Springer, V.G. Are the Indonesian and Western Indian Ocean Coelacanths Conspecific: A Prediction. Environmental Biology of Fishes 54, 453–456 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007524929593

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007524929593

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