A coelacanth (File Photo)

    BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhuanet) -- A strange fish caught by fishermen in Zanzibar has proved to be a coelacanth, a "living fossil" once thought to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, media reported Monday.

    The fish, which weighes 27 kg and is 1.34 meters long, was caught off the tropical island's northern tip, according to researcher Nariman Jidawi of Zanzibar's Institute of Marine Science.

    "The fishermen informed us they had caught this strange fish and we quickly rushed to find it was a coelacanth," Jidawi was quoted as saying by news media.

    The coelacanth is known from fossil records dating back more than 360 million years.

    In 1938, a coelacanth was caught by a South African museum curator on a local fishing trawler off the eastern coast of South Africa -- a major zoological find. In recent years, around 30 have been caught off Tanzania.

    Coelacanths are the only living animals to have a fully functional intercranial joint, a division separating the ear and brain from the nasal organs and eye.

    The most striking feature of this "living fossil" is its paired lobe fins that extend away from its body like legs and move in an alternating pattern.

    (Agencies)