Exceptional new fish fossil sparks rethink of how Earth’s geology drives evolution

Coelacanths are deep-sea fish that live off the coasts of southern Africa and Indonesia and can reach up to two metres in length. For a long time, scientists believed they were extinct.

In new research published in Nature Communications, we reveal the best-preserved coelacanth fossil ever found from the ancient period hundreds of millions of years ago when these ancient sea-dwellers first evolved. The fossil comes from the Gogo Formation on Gooniyandi Country in northern Western Australia.

We also studied the evolution of all the hundreds of coelacanth species we know from the fossil record to find out what drove the creation of new species across the aeons...