A type of fish, nearly extinct, noted for its lobe-fins, fins with a long limb-like base, intermediate in form between typical fins and the limbs of land animals. (pronounced see-la-canth).
Often referred to as a 'living fossil', the coelacanth is a large fish that appears as a fossil since the Devonian period (see Timeline). Thought to have become extinct in the Cretaceous period, a living one was caught by a fisherman in 1938. Others have since been discovered in deep ocean waters.
Although long thought to have gone extinct about 65 million years ago, one of these deep-water, lungless fish was caught in the 1930s. Others have since been caught and filmed in their natural habitat.
A lobe-finned fish originating in the Paleozoic and presently living in deep seas [LCOTE
Coelacanth ('hollow spine' in Greek, coelia (κοιλιά) meaning hollow and acanthos (άκανθος) spine) is the common name for an order of fish that includes the oldest living lineage of jawed fish known to date. The coelacanths, which are closely related to lungfishes, were believed to have been extinct since the end of the Cretaceous period, until a live specimen was found off the east coast of South Africa, off the Chalumna River in 1938. Since then, they have been found in the Comoros, Sulawesi (Indonesia), Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Greater St.