Silver coelacanths from Spain are not proofs of a Pre-scientific Discovery

Abstract

In 1964 and 1965, two silver fish pendants depicting coelacanths and thought to be religious votive from Spanish churches were purchased on the art market in Spain, dated between the 17th and late 19th century, long before the discovery for science of the living coelacanth in 1938. It was speculated that they originated either from the Mediterranean, subtropical Atlantic, or subtropical Pacific (de Sylva 1966, Bruton 1985, Anonymous 1993, Greenwell 1994, Raynold & Mangiacopra 1995). Some authors believe that the silver fish pendants represent a new species of coelacanthiforms (Raynold & Mangiacopra 1995), others claimed the pendants to be only a wishful fantasy of scientists and not coelacanths at all (Thomson 1991). However, new studies revealed that the silver fish artefacts are indeed coelacanths but were in fact produced more recently with the Comorian coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae, as a model.