Educational Media Reviews Online

Imagine how surprised Marjorie Latimer must have been when, in 1938, she identified a fish thought to have been extinct for 200 million years. The coelacanth undergoes vertical migrations in order to feed, but we rarely see them because they live at depths of up to 200 meters. They will survive at the surface only a short time, so it is not surprising that they are not usually found alive. "Living Fossil" includes some very short clips of underwater footage in which the viewer can see coelacanths.

Living Fossil uses interview footage with Latimer, now 92, describing the discovery of a living coelacanth. Latimer describes how she waited for expert James Leonard Brierley Smith to arrive to corroborate the identification. Smith authored a book about the coelacanth titled Old Fourlegs but surprisingly little information on the coelacanth is woven into Living Fossil. Viewers will not necessarily learn about coelacanth biology from this video.

Living Fossil includes footage of Smith's son, who leads boat tours in the area where the coelacanth was discovered. The son describes his father as an eminent research scientist and in one disconcerting clip tells of his father's suicide. The interviews with both Latimer and Smith's son are more theatric than scientific and the informative segments with a research scientist do not redeem the film.

Marjorie Latimer's discovery of the coelacanth was certainly noteworthy as fewer than 200 coelacanth specimens are known to exist worldwide. While the discovery of the coelacanth has been described as the most important zoological find of the century, this film relies on interview footage, which will not hold the attention of viewers. The other coelacanth videos are available on the market may be more readily received by viewers. The film may hold some interest to those interested in the history of science, but it is not recommended.