Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 111, March 2014, pp. 1-9. | Page 2

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The Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum is a natural history
museum and zoological research institution in Bonn, Germany. The museum is
named after the German Naturalist and Zoologist Alexander Ferdinand Koenig
(1858-1940), who founded the museum and donated his collection of specimens
to the institution. The museum was opened in 1934 and is affiliated with
the University of Bonn (Wikipedia).
During my scientific visit I saw a model of the Coelacanth fish (Latimeria
chalumnae Smith, 1939). The model was made by Mr. Wolfgang Hartwig, the
chief taxidermist of Museum Koenig, and was displayed in one of the glass
vitrines.

The Coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) Model at the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum
Alexander Koenig in Bonn, Germany. Photo by: Prof. Dr. Norman Ali Bassam Khalafvon Jaffa. 06.01.2003. http://www.flickr.com/photos/50022881@N00/10313429226/
The Coelacanths constitute a rare order of fish that includes two extant species in
the genus Latimeria: the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae
Smith, 1939) and the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis Pouyaud,
Wirjoatmodjo, Rachmatika, Tjakrawidjaja, Hadiaty & Hadie, 1999). They follow
the oldest known living lineage of Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish and tetrapods),
which means they are more closely related to lungfish, reptiles and mammals
than to the common ray-finned fishes. They are found along the coastlines of the
Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 111 – March 2014