coelacanth

Meaning

Noun

• Either of two species of deep-water fish, Latimeria chalumnae (species) of the Indian Ocean and Latimeria menadoensis (species) of Indonesia.
• Any lobe-finned fish in the order Coelacanthiformes, thought until 1938 to have been extinct for 70 million years.

Origin

• From the New Latin genus name Coelacanthus (genus), from Ancient Greek κοῖλος ("hollow") + ἄκανθα, referring to the hollow caudal fin rays of the first fossil specimen described and named by Louis Agassiz in 1839.