coe·la·canth

(sē′lə-kănth′)

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.

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

coe′la·can′thine′ (-kăn′thīn′, -thĭn) adj.

coe′la·can′thous (-thəs) adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

coelacanth

(ˈsiːləˌkænθ)

(Animals) a primitive marine bony fish of the genus Latimeria (subclass Crossopterygii), having fleshy limblike pectoral fins and occurring off the coast of E Africa: thought to be extinct until a living specimen was discovered in 1938

[C19: from New Latin coelacanthus, literally: hollow spine, from coel- + Greek akanthos spine]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

coe•la•canth

(ˈsi ləˌkænθ)

n.

a heavy, hollow-spined fish, Latimeria chalumnae, of deep S African coastal seas, that crawls on the sea bottom with lobed, limblike fins: a living fossil of the order Crossopterygii, considered forerunners of the land vertebrates.

[1860–65; < New Latin Coelacanthus orig. a genus name =coel- coel- + Greek -akanthos -spined, adj. derivative of ákantha spine, thorn]

coelacanth

coe·la·canth

(sē′lə-kănth′)

Any of various fish having lobed, fleshy fins. They are the only living varieties of an ancient order of lobe-finned fish. Coelacanths were thought to be extinct until a living species was discovered in 1938.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

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

Latimeria chalumnae

crossopterygian, lobefin, lobe-finned fish - any fish of the order Crossopterygii; most known only in fossil form

genus Latimeria, Latimeria - type genus of the Latimeridae: coelacanth

Translations

cœlacanthe

celecanto

латимерия целакант

coelacanth

[ˈsiːləkænθ] N → celacanto m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

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References in periodicals archive

The coelacanth - or CC to its friends - is a deep-sea fish which has been floating around for 400 million years.

It takes a cold fish to let girls suffer

The coelacanth, CC to its friends, is a deep sea fish which has been floating around for 400 million years.

Nelson's Column: It takes a cold fish like Christopher Chope to make girls suffer like this; Upskirting saboteur in chief Christopher Chope has been at it again. Sunday Mirror Political Editor Nigel Nelson says: For God's sake go

| 1938: A fish identified as a coelacanth, thought to have been extinct for 65 million years, was caught by a fisherman off the coast of South Africa.

On this day

From growing up in his hometown in Southern France beside the breezy Mediterranean Sea, to his great search of the ancient coelacanth off South Africa, to underneath massive ice sheets in the freezing Antarctic, Laurent has circumnavigated the world in his divesuit and with his camera.

Renowned underwater photographer Laurent Ballesta on taking the perfect shot

I remind skeptics of the coelacanth, primitive marine fish once known only in fossils, assumed by scientists to have caught the Extinction Express out of Dodge about 66 million years ago.

The Monster of Blackwater Lake: Find good fishing-and mystery-on the darkest of Florida's tannin-stained waters

Returning to the subject literally in hand, he frowns slightly: 'A trained Islamic art historian was as rare as a coelacanth in the 1960s.

A feel for objects

semilaevis were searched from the genomic library, and other species genomic sequences of DNAH9 were obtained from Ensemble (http://www.ensembl.org/index.html) and NBCI (Coelacanth: ENSLACG00000003371; Danio rerio: ENSDARG00000103383; Fugu rubripes: ENSTRUG00000000064; Lampetra japonica: ENSPMAG00000005143; Maylandia zebra: NW_004532118.1; and Xiphophorus maculatus: NW_005372467.1).

Transcription of Dynein Heavy Chain 9 (DNAH9) in Paralichthys olivaceus: Insights into the Evolution of the DNAH9 Gene

And when the newly rechristened Met Breuer opens later this month, visitors will be presented with a kind of living fossil, an architectural coelacanth: a museum building from another era that wasn't forced to evolve in tandem with its parent institution.

Return to form: Julian Rose on the Met Breuer

The irony is that Stellenbosch University has also produced counter-cultural alumni such as Beyers Naude, the noted theologian and former imprisoned antiapartheid activist; Uys Krige, noted playwright, satirist and bane of Afrikaner politicians; James Leonard Brierley Smith, the renowned ichthyologist involved with the rediscovery of the coelacanth; two former Union of South Africa prime ministers, Jan Smuts and James Hertzog; and even the erstwhile England cricket international, Jonathan Trott.

Stellenbosch and the Afrikaans racial baggage

Please find attached details of one of the most exciting developments in the African fish scene since the discovery of the coelacanth!

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