coelacanth

• cœlacanth (obsolete)

From the New Latin genus name Coelacanthus, from Ancient Greek κοῖλος (koîlos, “hollow”) + ἄκανθα (ákantha, “spine”), referring to the hollow caudal fin rays of the first fossil specimen described and named by Louis Agassiz in 1839.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiː.lə.kænθ/

• Audio (US):

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coelacanth (plural coelacanths)

1. Either of two species of deep-water fish, Latimeria chalumnae of the Indian Ocean and Latimeria menadoensis of Indonesia.

   Synonym: gombessa

2. Any lobe-finned fish in the order Coelacanthiformes, thought until 1938 to have been extinct for 70 million years.
   • 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 32:

     Among them were ancient relatives of the piranhas and those popular aquarium fish the tetras, along with garfish and freshwater coelacanths, known as mawsonids.

• coelacanth on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Latimeria chalumnae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Latimeria on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Latimeria chalumnae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons