The Coelacanth, a dive into our origins
“A unique human adventure and a media-worthy scientific project”
7.9
2013
1h 31m
Documentary
Gombessa Expedition 1 To dive for the Coelacanth is to go back in time. In 1938, when it was known only as a fossil, a Coelacanth was discovered in South Africa in a fisherman's net. This species bears witness to an evolutionary bifurcation 380 million years ago, and bears the marks of a great event: the day the fish left the ocean for the open air. Does it hold the secret to the transition to walking on land? In 2010, a marine biologist and outstanding diver, Laurent Ballesta, took the first photographs of the Coelacanth in its ecosystem. In April 2013, divers and researchers set down their equipment at the Sodwana base camp in South Africa, in the club founded by Peter Timm (who died in 2014). Six weeks of extreme diving at depths of over 120 meters, in an attempt to film the Coelacanth with a double-headed camera, collect its DNA and tag a subject with a satellite-linked beacon...
Key Crew
Director
Gil Kébaïli
Writers
Gil Kébaïli
Laurent Ballesta
Music
Stéphane Lopez
Cast (11)
Laurent Ballesta
Self - Plongeur, photographe, biologiste marin
Gaël Clément
Self - Paléontologue au Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Paris
