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Media release: The Minister of Science and Technology mourns the loss of Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer
20 May 2004
The Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Mosibudi Mangena, and the department mourn the death of Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the woman who first discovered the coelacanth in 1938, colloquially known as the dinofish.
Aged 97 at the time of her death, Courtenay-Latimer was an East London museum curator when she made the discovery and had an interest in fish specimens. The coelacanth's survival of more than 70 million years, once thought to have been extinct, is older than dinosaurs and yet remains a mystery today.
The Minister is grateful for her immense contribution to the sciences, and she will be remembered not only for her great discovery, but also for further unravelling the mystery of the deep seas.
For more info contact:
Nhlanhla Nyide
Tel: (012) 317 4355
Cell: 082 871 6767
Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
20 May 2004