On Apr. 17, 2013, researchers from the University of Washington, Broad Institute of Harvard and M.I.T. announced that the genome of the coelacanth had been sequenced. Often called a living fossil, the coelacanth was believed to have become extinct 70 million years ago, until a specimen was discovered in a fish market in South Africa in 1938.

Through a phylogenomic analysis, researchers concluded that the lungfish, and not the coelacanth, is the closest living relative of tetrapods.