: any of an order (Coelacanthiformes) of lobe-finned fishes known chiefly from Paleozoic and Mesozoic fossils
Illustration of coelacanth
Examples of coelacanth in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the WebIn the years since completing the fugu genome in 2002, Venkatesh — known universally as Venki — has sequenced the genomes of more than a dozen fishes, from sharks to the living-fossil coelacanth to his personal favorite, the seahorse.—Bob Holmes, Discover Magazine, 21 May 2018 One glaring exception to this kind of locomotion is a deep-water fish known as the coelacanth.—Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, 12 Dec. 2011 The coelacanth may live for a century.—Geek's Guide To The Galaxy, WIRED, 16 July 2021 Less imposing critters have indeed shown up unexpectedly; in 1938 biologists identified a living coelacanth—a species of fish presumed extinct for about 65 million years.—Riley Black, Popular Science, 15 Oct. 2020 Its relatives were once widespread and more diverse, but now, like the coelacanth, they’ve been reduced to two endangered species living on the New Zealand islands.—Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2021 Some other living fossils include the coelacanth, the horseshoe crab, and the nautilus.—Joseph Castro, Discover Magazine, 17 Aug. 2011 Take the coelacanth, a bony fish that was thought to have become extinct millions of years ago but was found in 1938 by a South African museum curator on a fishing trawler.—Jenny Gross, New York Times, 4 Aug. 2022 The coelacanth — a giant weird fish still around from dinosaur times — can live for 100 years, a new study found.—Seth Borenstein, Star Tribune, 17 June 2021
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Word History
Etymology
ultimately from Greek koilos hollow + akantha spine — more at cave
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