Oldest fish 'swims' into Shanghai World Expo

The world's oldest fish "swam" into the Africa Joint Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo on July 6 after Denmark's iconic Little Mermaid statue's first visit to the Expo, according to China News Service.

The fish is a specimen of the Comoros coelacanth, and is 1.2 meters long and 37 centimeters wide. It was a valuable gift that the President of Comoros gave former Chinese President Jiang Zemin in 1997.

The Comorian government borrowed the specimen and exhibited it at the Comoros Pavilion in hopes that tourists from around the world can see the oldest fish up close in person while acquiring scientific knowledge about the coelacanth so their awareness of protecting endangered species will be heightened.

Comoros Vice President Idi Nadhoim attended the celebrations of the Comoros Pavilion Day and removed the cloth covering the coelacanth in front of the Karthala Volcano exhibition section at 2:30 p.m. This tawny fish, with a wide mouth, big eyes, and stout body, will be exhibited here until the end of the Expo.

Coelacanths appeared about 350 million years ago and are considered to be the oldest species of fish in the world. Carrying certain characteristics of the crossopterygii and tetrapod, it can not only breathe air but also walk with its fins. It is a "missing link" between fish and amphibians.

Most scientists believed coelacanths had become extinct 80 million years ago until one was caught near the Comoro Islands in southern Africa by a fisherman in 1938.