Coelacanth ('hollow spine' in Greek, coelia (??????) meaning hollow and acanthos (???????) spine) is the common name for an order of fish that includes the oldest living lineage of gnathostomata known to date. The coelacanths, which are related to lungfishes and tetrapods, were believed to have been extinct since the end of the Cretaceous period, until the first Latimeria specimen was found off the east coast of South Africa, off the Chalumna River in 1938. (They are, therefore, a Lazarus taxon.) Since 1938, Latimeria chalumnae have been found in the Comoros, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, and in Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park in South Africa. The second species, L. menadoensis, was described from Sulawesi, Indonesia in 1999.[LINK: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/96/22/12616] Reference for divergence dated on mitochondrial genome

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