16. Fish, amphibians and reptiles
This gallery has remained virtually unchanged since the Museum opened in 1910. The murals above the showcases represent Congolese landscapes and are by the Belgian painter Emile Fabry (1865-1966).
- The Nile crocodile : a cold-blooded and extremely successful predator
Crocodylus niloticus – the Nile crocodile – is the best known and also the largest crocodile to be found in Africa. This cold-blooded animal lives in and around rivers, lakes and marshes in humid, tropical areas, usually in large hierarchically organized communities.
The Nile crocodile employs an impressive range of hunting techniques. Often, it will surprise its prey, lurking low in the water and patiently lying in wait until an animal stoops to drink, at which point it surges out of the water, seizes the prey in its powerful jaws, drags it into deeper water and drowns it. Its sharp teeth and jaws are not made for chewing so it rips off large chunks of flesh and swallows them whole.
The Nile crocodile can go for long periods – several months if need be – without food. |
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- The coelacant : a living fossile
As the only survivor of the lobe-finned fish the coelacanth is regarded a ‘living fossil’. Indeed, it was thought that this large deep-sea fish had become extinct more than 60 million years ago. So when local fishermen caught a coelacanth off the east coast of Southern Africa in 1938 the scientific world was utterly astonished.
An adult coelacanth can reach up to nearly two metres long and weigh something like 98 kg. Alive, the fish is blue-black in colour with a distinctive pattern of white and purple spots. Almost its entire skeleton is made of cartilage. The coelacanth has eight very mobile fins on limb-like basal lobes and likes to live on the ocean-floor. |
Most coelacanths (some 200 thus far) have been caught in the Indian Ocean around Comoros. Recently, specimens have been fished up near Kenya and Indonesia as well. The Museum’s specimen came from Comoros in 1981.
Because the coelacanth is threatened with extinction it can only be dealt in for scientific purposes.
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