Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various mostly extinct lobe-finned fishes of the group Coelacanthiformes or Actinistia, known only in fossil form until a living species, Latimeria chalumnae, was identified in 1938. A second Latimeria species was described in 1999.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Either of two species of deep-water fish, Latimeria chalumnae of the Indian Ocean and L. menadoensis of Indonesia.
  • noun Any lobe-finned fish in the order Coelacanthiformes, thought until 1938 to have been extinct for 70 million years.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun fish thought to have been extinct since the Cretaceous period but found in 1938 off the coast of Africa

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin Coelacanthus, former genus name : Greek koilos, hollow; see –coel + Greek akantha, spine (in reference to the hollow spines of the fins).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek κοῖλος (koilos, "hollow") + ἄκανθα (akantha, "spine").

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Examples

  • Speaking of very confused, the coelacanth is a ‘living fossil’ in the sense that the two known contemporary species belong to a very old subclass, previously thought to be extinct.

    Steve Steve Down Under - The Panda's Thumb 2005

  • The coelacanth is a large predatory fish that lives in deep water mainly in the Indian ocea, although specimens have recently been found off Indonesia.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2002

  • Someone went digging in the Company archives and discovered that the coelacanth was a Dr. Zeus special.

    In the Garden of Iden 1997

  • The coelacanth was a five-foot-long fish thought to have died out sixty-five million years ago, until a specimen was pulled from the ocean in 1938.

    Jurassic Park Crichton, Michael, 1942- 1991

  • A research team from Indonesia's Sam Ratulangi University, Indonesian Science Institution and Fukushima Aquamarine Japan on Monday once again found prehistoric fish called coelacanth at Talise waters of North Minahasa in 155 meter-depth.

    UnderwaterTimes.com News of the Underwater World 2009

  • Tiktaalik, Menton said, is not unique in having these bones because other lobe-fish, such as "coelacanth" fish, also have them.

    Dikika Hominid Revisited Devolving Into Tiktaalik Revisited Christopher O'Brien 2006

  • Tiktaalik, Menton said, is not unique in having these bones because other lobe-fish, such as "coelacanth" fish, also have them.

    Archive 2006-09-01 Christopher O'Brien 2006

  • For years, the coelacanth which is found in fossil layers allegedly 70 million or more years old was believed to be an extinct transitional form, one of the “proofs” of evolution because of its fleshy, lobed fins.

    Gogonasus andrewsae - The Panda's Thumb 2006

  • It’s identified as a coelacanth, a fish long thought to be extinct.

    December 2008 2008

  • It’s identified as a coelacanth, a fish long thought to be extinct.

    Still Ugly After All These Years 2008

Comments

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  • I used to catch a kind of bowfin that was called a dogfish when I lived in Minnesota. They always reminded me of coelacanths. Bowfins are an order (Amiiformes) of primitive ray-finned fish. Only one species, the bowfin Amia calva, family Amiidae, exists today, although additional species in six families are known from Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Eocene fossils.

    February 4, 2008

  • a 'link' to ancient fish

    October 23, 2010