Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 113, May 2014, pp. 1-26. | Page 18

18 A coelacanth Macropomoides orientalis from the Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian Stage (95 million years ago) from Lebanon. Fossil No.: SF3699. Harun Yahya Collection. http://en.harunyahya.net/coelacanth-fossils-fossil-museum/ The coelacanth is a large fish some 150 centimeters in length, whose body is all covered by thick scales reminiscent of armor. It is a member of the class of bony fishes (Osteichthyes), of which the earliest fossils are found in strata belonging to the Devonian Period (417 to 354 million years ago). For years, evolutionists portrayed fossils belonging to this vertebrate as belonging to an intermediate form, until the capture of a live coelacanth invalidated such claims. Research into the fish's anatomy again inflicted a major defeat on Darwinists (Harun Yahya). In an article in Nature magazine, an evolutionist paleontologist named Peter L. Forey (1988) said this: "The discovery of Latimeria [coelacanth] raised hopes of gathering direct information on the transition of fish to amphibians, for there was then a long-held belief that coelacanths were close to the ancestry of tetrapods . . . But studies of the anatomy and physiology of Latimeria have found this theory of relationship to be wanting and the living coelacanth's reputation as a missing link seems unjustified." The latest information regarding the complex structure of the coelacanth continues to pose difficulties for evolutionists. This problem was expressed in Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 113 – May 2014