The animators extraordinaire, Flora Lichtman and Sharon Shattuck trace "the coelacanth's incredible journey through several distinct geological periods until its recent resurfacing when it was found (alive and) to be nearly unchanged" over the 65 million years or so it was considered an ancient fossil.

Discoveries such as this are also the story of people, sometimes of a single person. There are two main players. Lichtman and Shattuck organize this story around the work of Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the curator of the local museum who sought to preserve the find.

h/t Aeon (This short video is part of the Biointeractive/New York Times "Animated Life" collection of five scientific pioneers and their discoveries: http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/animated-life)