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 ofIndonesia . - noun Any lobe-finned fish in the order
Coelacanthiformes , thought until 1938 to have beenextinct 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
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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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.
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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.
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Someone went digging in the Company archives and discovered that the coelacanth was a Dr. Zeus special.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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It’s identified as a coelacanth, a fish long thought to be extinct.
December 2008 2008
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It’s identified as a coelacanth, a fish long thought to be extinct.
treeseed commented on the word coelacanth
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
fbharjo commented on the word coelacanth
a 'link' to ancient fish
October 23, 2010