Science: Living Fossil

In the cinema version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World, a remote wilderness is peopled with fantastic dinosaurs, purported survivors of the Age of Reptiles (200 million to 60 million years ago). No one believes that such creatures actually live anywhere in the modern world, for one reason because its land areas have been too well explored. But the bottom of the sea has not been explored. Last week ichthyologists scratched their heads in wonder over completely authenticated reports of a fish, caught alive in December 1938, whose kind should have perished 50 million years ago.

A few days before Christmas...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!