The 2023/24 collection for Niche Snowboards was inspired by things lost and frozen in time. Designs feature extinct plants and animals, threatened species of varying types, living fossils and more. This season's Wraith features the most famous living fossil, the Coelacanth.
Coelacanth are found along the coastline of Indonesia and in the Indian Ocean. The Coelacanth is the most famous of all “living fossils” and is the best example of a “Lazarus taxon”, this is, animals that were supposed to be long extinct and are unexpectedly found to be alive. Coelacanths were supposed to have become extinct in the Cretaceous period, along with the dinosaurs, but in 1938, a live specimen was caught in South Africa. Since then, more specimens have been seen and photographed, and a second coelacanth species was even found in Indonesia in 1999. Coelacanths are large predators, up to 2 meters long; they feed on smaller fish, including small sharks, and are usually found in deep, dark waters. Although rarely captured and consumed due to their horrible taste, coelacanths are critically endangered nowadays.
FOIL STAMP COORDINATES: Comoro Islands, Africa (home to the Coelacanth)
Living fossil illustrations by Zosia Olenska.
