ichthyolite

American  

[ik-thee-uh-lahyt] / ˈɪk θi əˌlaɪt /

noun

1. a fossil fish.

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ichthyolite British  

/ ˌɪkθɪəˈlɪtɪk, ˈɪkθɪəˌlaɪt /

noun

1. rare any fossil fish

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Other Word Forms

• ichthyolitic adjective

Etymology

Origin of ichthyolite

First recorded in 1820–30; ichthyo- + -lite

Example Sentences

Ichthyolite, ik′thi-ō-līt, n. a fossil fish.

From Project Gutenberg

He had evidently seen, long ere it had been detected by the scientific eye, that strange ichthyolite of the Old Red system, the Cephalaspis.

From Project Gutenberg

There occur, besides, slabs of fibrous limestone, exactly resembling the limestone of the ichthyolite beds of the Lower Old Red; and blocks of a hard gray stone, of silky lustre in the fresh fracture, thickly speckled with carbonaceous markings.

From Project Gutenberg

The storm of a single night swept the beach; and in the morning the ichthyolites lay revealed in situ under a stratum of shingle which I had a hundred times examined, but which, though scarce a foot in thickness, had concealed from me the ichthyolite bed for five twelvemonths together!

From Project Gutenberg

The numerous Coccostei of this quarry exhibit, attached to their upper plates, their long vertebral columns, of many joints, that, depending from the broad dorsal shields of the ichthyolite, remind one of those skeleton fishes one sometimes sees on the shores of a fishing village, in which the bared backbone joints on, cord-like, to the broad plates of the skull.

From Project Gutenberg