Living fossil fish has 62 copies of a “parasite gene” humans share too — we have no idea how they got there – ZME Science

The capture of a ‘living fossil’ fish off the coast of South Africa in the 1930s is now helping us understand one of the more exotic ways evolution can happen — interspecies genetic hijacking.
A model of Latimeria chalumnae, one of two known species of coelacanths. Image via Wikipedia.
Coelacanths are one of the oldest lineages of fish in existence today. They’re so old, in fact, that they’re more closely related to the ancestors of reptiles and amphibians than modern-day fish. We first encountered…

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