Coelacanths have a long evolutionaty history, which began about 370 million years ago and was supposed to end during the Late Mesozoic. The discovery of living samples of  Latimeria changed our knowledge of these animals. Today’s coelacanth are forced into a few deep water niches but in the past these fishes swam shallow, fresh and brackish waters along the coastal areas of the interior seas where the Sahara Desert is now. Mawsonia was a large colelacanth, exceeding four meters in lenght.