The Coelacanth was thought to have gone extinct around 70 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period. This was the famed time of the extinction of the dinosaurs, the K/T boundary. Because the Coelacanth lives in such deep waters and lives in submarine caves, maybe it was protected from some of the effects of whatever caused the dinosaurs to go extinct. No scientist had seen a Coelacanth until Marjorie-Courtney Latimer spotted one, so before that, of course it was thought to be extinct (McKenzie, 1995). Now scientists know that fisherman from the Comoros Islands have been catching Coelacanths for years, and just throwing them back in the water (McKenzie, 1995). They did not realize that this fish was very important. It was just lucky for the fish that people thought it was extinct, because that meant that no one was looking for it. Now that people know this fish is alive, it is essentially being hunted and their numbers are declining (McKenzie, 1995).