Broadcast (2001) It was thriving long before the dinosaurs ruled the Earth, and scientists thought it had died out more than 65 million years ago. But in 1938, fishermen on a South African trawler netted a massive, scaly, blue-gray fish, and suddenly the long-extinct creature from the depths was back, stunning scientists and capturing headlines across the world. In “Ancient Creature of the Deep,” NOVA tells the story of the coelacanth, the most famous of all “living fossils.”