Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A genus of gigantic primitive fishes, now found only in a fossil state in the Old Red Sandstone.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Paleon.) A genus of fishes, some of which were eighteen or twenty feet long, found in a fossil state in the Old Red Sandstone.
Etymologies
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Examples
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Hugh Miller's famous asterolepis, which we heard afterwards had the appearance of a petrified nail, and had formed part of a huge fish whose species were known to have measured from eight to twenty-three feet in length.
From John O'Groats to Land's End Robert Naylor
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The tops of the southern cases display various fossil remains, including the head-bones of the asterolepis; the skull and antlers of the Irish elk; and various skulls of different kinds of oxen.
How to See the British Museum in Four Visits W. Blanchard Jerrold 1855
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