As a general rule, I don’t like to post photos of dead things, but since I am unlikely to ever see a living coelecanth, here you go.

This is one of the last recently-living remnants of the lobe-finned fish from which some scientists no longer believe that land mammals evolved, though Wikipedia has not been updated to match the debate about the sarcopterygians, the details of which I am only slightly aware.

Long story short: all* the scientists seem to agree that land animals evolved from fish, but perhaps not fish that looked like this one.

* Within a standard deviation or three.

I have long wondered why these are called sea cucumbers when they look very little like actual cucumbers.

Then I googled “Japanese cucumber” and it all made sense.