Museum curator, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, has died aged 97 years old.

As curator of the East London museum in South Africa, she was responsible for the discovery of the long-thought extinct coelacanth in 1938 after a fisherman, Captain Hendrik Goosen, found an extraordinary creature in his catch of the day.

Ignoring an early dismissal of her find by the chair of the museum’s board, the creature turned out to be a coelacanth, while the specimen was formally named latimeria chalumnae after her.

Ichthyologists around the world have said that her discovery was one of the most exciting of the 20th century.

Courtenay-Latimer remained at the museum from 1931 through to her retirement in 1973.

From 1938, when Marjorie first found her latimeria chalumnae, to date, nearly 200 coelacanths have been caught around the world.

She died on 17 May, 2004.