Coelacanths are deep-sea fish that live of the coasts of southern Africa and Indonesia and can reach up to 2 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 found from the ancient period hundreds of millions of years ago.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 

* coelacanths have robust bones in their fins a bit like the bones in our arms.