large fish once thought extinct: a large fish that varies from bright blue to brownish and has fleshy lobes at the base of its fins and a three-lobed tail. Coelacanths were thought to have been extinct for 70 million years until a living species was discovered in 1938 off the east coast of Africa. Native to: Indian Ocean. Latin name Latimeria chalumnae.
[Mid-19th century. < modern Latin Coelacanthus< Greek koilos "hollow" + akantha "spine"; because its fins have hollow spines]
