Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer

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Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer

Marjorie Eileen Doris Courtenay-Latimer (born February 24, 1907 in Aliwal North or East London , † May 17, 2004 in East London) was a South African amateur biologist, long-time museum director and the discoverer of a living fossil .

Life

Postcard commemorating the discovery in December 1938
Courtenay-Latimer with the first specimen of a recent coelacanth she discovered as a preparation

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was the daughter of a South African railroad official and his wife. She spent her school days in Aliwal North. Her parents awakened her interest in ornithology , cultural history and botany .

In the catch of a coastal ship, she noticed on December 22, 1938, at that time already working as a curator (named director from 1945) at the Museum of East London , an unusual and unknown fish about 1.5 meters long and weighing almost 60 kilograms. This fish was found at the mouth of the Chalumna River . The fact that she was acquainted with the captain of the trawler Nerine , Hendrick Goosen, contributed to the find . Latimer suspected that it was a rarity. It was not until Professor James Leonard Brierley Smith of Rhodes University in Grahamstown , a recognized ichthyologist , realized on February 16, 1939, that it was a living fossil, a coelacanth , which he scientifically described as Latimeria chalumnae (Comoros coelacanth). The full name is Latimeria chalumnae SMITH , 1939. When the museum's board of directors wanted to sell this then unique research object to the UK for £ 5,000 , Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer convinced undecided members of that committee of the “shortsightedness” of this decision. Finally, the intention to sell was abandoned.

This species has not changed for millions of years due to stabilizing selection. The coelacanth is a so-called living fossil , ie as a living representative of an evolutionarily old group of animals that is otherwise only known from fossils. It represents a group of fish that are more closely related to the ancestors of the terrestrial vertebrates than most other fish.

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was a founding member of the South African Museum's Association , the Border Historical Society, and the Border Wild Flower Association . In 1971 she received an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University .

literature

  • Samantha Weinberg: The Coelacanth: the adventurous story of the discovery of an animal that has been believed to be extinct for seventy million years . Fischer paperback, Frankfurt a. M. 2001, ISBN 3-596-15089-2 .
  • M. Courtenay-Latimer: Kannemeyeria wilsoni Broom. How it came to the East London Museum . In: AL du Toit (Ed.): Special publications of the Royal Society of South Africa. The Robert Broom Commemorative Volume . Royal Society of South Africa, Cape Town 1948, pp. 107-109.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Short biography (author: Tony Ribbink) on the website of the South African Ministry of Science and Technology  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English).@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.dst.gov.za  
  2. ↑ Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer in the Notable Names Database (English)
  3. ↑ Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer in the Notable Names Database (English)
  4. ^ South African History Online: December 21, 1938. A fishing trawler off the South African Coast catches a coelacanth . Retrieved November 13, 2010 from www.sahistory.com .
  5. ↑ MM Smith: Latimeriidae . In: MM Smith, PC Heemstra (Ed.): Smiths' sea fishes . Springer, Berlin 1986, pp. 152-153.
personal data
SURNAME Courtenay-Latimer, Marjorie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Courtenay-Latimer, Marjorie Eileen Doris (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African naturalist
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Aliwal North or East London
DATE OF DEATH May 17, 2004
Place of death East London