Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer
Born
Marjorie Eileen Doris Courtenay-Latimer

(1907-02-24)24 February 1907
East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Died17 May 2004(2004-05-17) (aged 97)
East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Known forThe delivery of the Coelacanth
AwardsHonorary doctorate from Rhodes University[1]
Scientific career
FieldsNatural history, Palaeontology
InstitutionsEast London Museum

Marjorie Eileen Doris Courtenay-Latimer (24 February 1907 – 17 May 2004) was a South African museum official, who in 1938, brought to the attention of the world the existence of the coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct for 65 million years.

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer discovered this coelacanth, formerly only seen in fossils millions of years old, in a fisherman's catch. It was given the name Latimeria chalumnae after her.
  1. ^ Smith, Anthony (21 May 2004). "Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer: Museum curator famed for her delivery of the coelacanth, a 400m-year-old fish". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 October 2013.