Coelacanths

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Large deep-sea fishes with lobed fins that were believed extinct for millions of years until a living specimen was caught in 1938
2. Ancient lobe-finned marine fish, long considered extinct until living examples were discovered off the coast of South Africa
3. Rare prehistoric-looking ocean fishes related to lungfish, whose living representatives were rediscovered after being thought long vanished

Etymology: Coelacanths were thought extinct for about 66 million years until 1938, when a live one was caught off South Africa, so the animal's name was coined before anyone had seen a living specimen. The name is the genus name Coelacanthus, created in New Latin from Ancient Greek "koilos," meaning "hollow," and "akantha," meaning "spine." It refers to the hollow fin rays of the tail, which the naturalist Louis Agassiz noticed in the first fossil he described and named in 1839. The word is a plural, so "coelacanths" simply means more than one of these fish, and the singular "coelacanth" carries the same origin.