Prehistoric monster ( Coelacanth ) terrorises kids in the Ganges

[Marduk]

Indian paleontologists are heading to Calcutta in West Bengal after locals claimed to have fished a prehistoric Coelacanth out of the water.

Coelacanths were believed to have been extinct since the end of the Cretaceous period until the first specimen was found off the east coast of South Africa in 1938.

Since then they have been found in the Comoros, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar.

But the experts are trying to work out how what would be the biggest ever Coelacanth specimen weighing 320 kilos came to be floating down the Ganges.
http://austriantimes.at/news/Around_the_World/2009-08-27/15970/Prehistoric_monster_terrorises_kids_in_the_Ganges
Is nothing sacred
:D

[William Parcher]

Is nothing sacred :D


Apparently not. That's a grouper, not a coelacanth. LOL!

[runnah]

I am amazed anything could live in that filthy water.

[dasmiller]

Apparently not. That's a grouper, not a coelacanth. LOL!

I'm with you - where are the lobed fins? The heavy, frilly-looking tail? Aside from being fairly stout, the fish in that picture looks nothing like a coelacanth but it looks a great deal like a grouper.

[Marduk]

sandwich anyone
:D

[Akhenaten]

sandwich anyone
:D


Why not? Bhetki fish. About 500 rupees a kilo.

Bengalnet (http://www.bengalnet.com/kolkata/fish_meat.php)


ETA:

Here's a more realistic version of the story (http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-98502.html)

[William Parcher]

It's probably a Malabar Grouper (Epinephelus malabaricus), and the eight-foot length is exaggerated. These fish will live in estuaries and may enter fresh water.

[Audible Click]

The eye witnesses said the fish, believed to be a giant species of 'Bhetki', had a ribbon in its mouth and a cut mark on its stomach.

Maybe it won a prize for masquerading as a coelacanth and then died of shame...and a knife wound. :boggled:

[William Parcher]

No, it isn't a Bhetki. The Bhetki is the Barramundi (Lates calcarifer).

[Vic Vega]

I am amazed anything could live in that filthy water.

You're not kidding. I have a co-worker who was in India on vacation. He and his traveling companion took a boat tour up the Ganges in a small motor boat.

He said that something floating by the boat a few yards away caught his eye so he took a closer look. It took him a few seconds before he realized that it was a dead baby. :(

[Akhenaten]

No, it isn't a Bhetki. The Bhetki is the Barramundi (Lates calcarifer).


Thank you William.


<post hoc style="explanation">

I thought they looked familiar.

</post hoc>

[Marduk]

You're not kidding. I have a co-worker who was in India on vacation. He and his traveling companion took a boat tour up the Ganges in a small motor boat.

He said that something floating by the boat a few yards away caught his eye so he took a closer look. It took him a few seconds before he realized that it was a dead baby. :(

the Ganges as well as being a river is also a graveyard
As we reach the sandbar, just downstream from a Hindu cremation ground, we're hit by a putrid smell and a ghastly sight: lying on the sand are a human rib cage, a femur, and, nearby, a yellow-shrouded corpse. "It's been rotting there for a month," a fisherman tells us. The clothed body of a small child floats a few yards off the island. Although the state government banned the dumping of bodies a decade ago, many of Kanpur's destitute still discard their loved ones clandestinely at night.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/ganges-200711.html
:eek: