Question

Up until 1938, paleontologists accepted the idea that coelacanths (an ancient fish) went extinct at the time that they last appear in the fossil record, about 80 million years ago. But in 1938, a live coelacanth was discovered off the coast of South Africa that was compared to the fossil record and found to be the same species What goal of science does this discovery represent

Answer 1

I believe this represents the goal of not doubting anything in science. Paleontologists found a species that was previously known to be extinct, which means that there could be many more discoveries like this that could change history as we know it. I bet this taught scientists to not have a fixed mindset when it comes to searching for more answers on a topic.

I hope I helped!

Answer 2

Scientific Ideas are always open to revision. Because when an Hypothesis is developed we use the knowledge we possess to do it. However our knowledge can be limited.

Step-by-step explanation:

The basic idea of proposing an hypothesis is that we gather all the information we can to explain the closest claim on reality. The thing is that we are sensorial beings and we interpret reality with what we perceive, that is why we can be wrong even though if we are positivist scientists. We try to explain reality as much as we can an because we do it since a human being point of view we can be wrong because we don't possess the best sensorial receptors. That's why we have to be very academic and strict, because we need to build our ideas as strong as we can so they can't be falsed that easily.