Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, whose astute eye and persistence uncovered the "zoological find of the century."

From left: Eric Hunt, JLB Smith, the DC3's pilot, a local French governor, and several Comorians surround the "second" coelacanth that established the Comoros as the first home of the famous "living fossil" in 1953.

At a stopover on the way back to South Africa, a nervous JLB Smith sleeps next to the "second" coelacanth in its travel box!

France took charge of coelacanth research from the mid 1950's until Comoran independence in 1975. Professor James Millot examines a specimen, circa 1957.