MARJORIE COURTENAY-LATIMER, an internationally renowned ichthyologist, died on Monday 17 May at the age of 97.

Courtenay-Latimer, the discoverer of the coelacanth - a primitive fish thought to have been extinct for 70 million years - was admitted to St Dominic's hospital last week, where she was being treated for pneumonia.

The East Londoner achieved international acclaim for her role in discovering the coelacanth in 1938. She was the woman who spotted the unique specimen in the catch of a fishing trawler. The genus Latimeria chalumnae was named after her.

During her studies of sea birds, Courtenay-Latimer became friends with several trawler fishermen and crew. It was one of them - Hendrik Goosen, the captain of the trawler Nerine - who tipped her off about an unusual fish he had found.

It was 23 December 1938. The Nerine had just finished a stint off the mouth of the Chalumna River, 60 kilometres west of East London.

"I was very busy but felt I should go and wish them a Merry Christmas," Latimer said later.

She went over to the Nerine and noticed a strange blue fin protruding from beneath a pile of fish. "There lay the most beautiful fish I had ever seen," she said later.

She sent the preserved specimen to Prof JLB Smith, a Rhodes scientist, who identified the fish as a living fossil and the most important zoological finds of the century.

Courtenay-Latimer became the first curator of the East London Museum, from 1945 to 1973, and established it as a world-class facility. "When I first came to the museum," she recalled in an interview in 2003, "there was nothing to interest people. I took it on myself to make sure that it is what it is today."

She donated what is believed to be the only dodo egg in the world to the museum.

In October 2003 clay casts were taken of the scientist's feet at a ceremony at the East London Museum. The cast are to be placed in Heroes Park in Quigney. The park, which overlooks the ocean, celebrates and remembers heroes of the province.

Courtenay-Latimer was the guest of honour at an international Coastal and Ocean Exploration conference held in East London in November 2003.