Search for African Coelacanths

"Search for African Coelacanths" by Susan Bahnick Jones A two-frame display division exhibit shown at COMPEX 2015 (Non-competitive show, Arlington Heights, Illinois, USA) and NTSS 2015 (the National Topical Stamp Show of the American Topical Association, Portland, Oregon, USA, where it was awarded a Silver Medal and the Women Exhibitor's Award).

This two-frame display exhibit tells the story of a rare and endangered fish known as the coelacanth (SEE-luh-kanth). Coelacanths disappeared from the fossil record about the same time as the dinosaurs. In 1938 scientists thought they were extinct. They also thought the fish might represent a missing link between fish and the first land vertebrates.
The exhibit spans roughly 150 years - from the naming of the first fossil coelacanth in 1835 through discovery of a living coelacanth off the coast of South Africa in 1938 and ending with South Africa’s celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the find in 1989. The 50^th anniversary was selected as the endpoint for the exhibit because it coincides with a major shift in coelacanth research technology - from divers using scuba gear at relatively shallow depths to scientists diving in submersibles to the deeper waters inhabited by coelacanths.



The exhibit focuses on the African coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae.

Philatelic Elements:
There are 112 elements in the exhibit: 93% philatelic and 7% non-philatelic. Philatelic elements include stamps, souvenir sheets, first day and commercial covers, maxi cards, cancellations, and proofs.
Non-philatelic items include currency, decals, a photograph, a magazine cover, a letter, a phone card, and earrings.

Noteworthy Elements:

• Section 2 - Pierre Bequet signed proof.
• Section 4 - Hand-written letter by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, discoverer of the first living coelacanth, to South African to stamp collector G. Gailey, transmitting two signed FDCs and expressing her emphatic views of the importance of her discovery and of South Africa’s 50^th anniversary stamps issue.

Key Sources:

• Coelacanth Website: www.dinofish.com – contains timelines and results of research expeditions.
  A good place to start for a quick chronological overview of events covered by the exhibit.
• Book "A Fish Caught in Time", Samantha Weinberg, HarperCollins 2000, ISBN: 9780060932855 - general overview of the topics in the exhibit – all in an easy-to-read style.
• The most up-to-date single reference for the coelacanth story.