Living fossil
David Attenborough visits the Comoro Islands looking for the coelacanth.
The local villagers are the world experts in catching them.
David holds a dried coelacanth and talks about how it uses its fleshy-lobed fins to swim and to clamber about on the seabed.
It is unusual for a coelacanth to be caught alive, but while the 麻豆社 were in the Comoros one was landed, so they put it in back the sea to film. 350 million years ago, fish with fins like the coelacanth's were swimming about and some had descendants which came out on to land.
One or two coelacanths are caught every year by the locals. They don't taste nice, but they can be sold to scientific institutions and make the lucky fisherman rich.
Duration:
This clip is from
Featured in...
麻豆社 Nature
Be captivated, informed and inspired by the world's wildlife.
David Attenborough's favourites
David Attenborough's selection of memorable film moments demonstrating the leaps in filmmaking technology in the past 30 years and showcasing the diversity of life on Earth.
More clips from Invasion of the Land
-
Mouth brooding frog
Duration: 01:49
More clips from Life on Earth
-
Lucky pups—The Rise of the Mammals
Duration: 03:29
-
Millennia of millipedes—The First Forests
Duration: 01:50
-
Creatures of the night—Life in the Trees
Duration: 01:16
-
Scent sense—Life in the Trees
Duration: 02:55