Here are just a few of the many unanswered questions that remain about coelacanths:
- How large is the population in Sulawesi? Is it a small relict population, or actually
part of a larger Indonesian metapopulation? Are there other coelacanth populations elsewhere in the world?
- How long do they live?
- How, where, and how often do they reproduce? Is special courtship behavior involved?
- Where are the juveniles? Juvenile coelacanths have not yet been observed in situ
with adult coelacanths, and only one has been caught, so their habitat or behavior may differ from the adults.
- What are their primary predators (besides humans)?
- How do coelacanths disperse? With no planktonic larval phase, dispersal must be limited
to juvenile and adult migrations between deep reefs. With seemingly limited swimming capability,
this is a puzzle indeed!