Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A genus of fossil ganoid fishes of the Old Red Sandstone, having a cartilaginous endoskeleton, an enameled and sculptured bony exoskeleton, two anal and two dorsal fins alternating in position with one another, and an extremely heterocercal tail.
Etymologies
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Examples
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Though it required skill to determine the place of the pterichthys and coccosteus there could be no mistaking the osteolepis -- it must have been a fish, and a handsome one, too.
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 15 — Science Various 1909
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The one-sided form of the tail in the osteolepis &c. finds a similar analogy in the form of the tail in the embryo of the salmon.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation Robert Chambers 1836
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