ratfish


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Related to ratfish: Chimaeriformes

rat·fish

 (răt′fĭsh′)
n. pl. ratfish or rat·fish·es
A chimaera (Hydrolagus colliei) of eastern Pacific waters, having a large head, a long narrow tail, and triangular pectoral fins.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ratfish

(ˈrætˌfɪʃ)
n, pl -fish or -fishes
1. (Animals) another name for rabbitfish1
2. (Animals) a chimaera, Hydrolagus colliei, of the North Pacific Ocean, which has a long narrow tail
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

rat•fish

(ˈrætˌfɪʃ)

n., pl. (esp. collectively) -fish, (esp. for kinds or species) -fish•es.
a spotted chimaera, Hydrolagus colliei, of the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to Baja California, having a ratlike tail.
[1880–85]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive ?
Almost 60% of these animals were either lesser spotted dogfish, spotted ratfish or spiny dogfish.
A nodule unearthed from 300-million-year-old rocks in Kansas holds what scientists believe is the oldest fossilized brain, that of an ancient cartilaginous fish (illustration, top) related to modern-day ratfish. Individual slices imaged with X-ray tomography reveal an exceptionally preserved brain (frontal view shown).
For example, sharks, rays, and ratfish contain only microvillar olfactory neurons, whereas lampreys, snakes, frogs, and turtles contain only ciliated ones.
And Hydrolagus trolli, a species of ratfish, was named after him.
There are spotted ratfish, big skates, spiny dogfish and shortspine thornyheads, among dozens of others, and they're all identified distinctly in each region you choose to draw a little box.
The skates and rays of California, with an account of the ratfish. Calif.
Of all English translations, M.'s version of this passage is the most faithful and successful, admirably conveying the potential for humour inherent in Daphnis' desperation, as well as the aggressive and even animal sexual drive inscribed by the rare verb [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]; the choice of "ruttish" apparently echoes this rarity, at least according to Microsoft Word's spellchecker, which does not acknowledge its existence, and would have 'ratfish' instead.
It is, as you'd expect, quirky, filled with objets d'art, like a pickled ratfish, a small, sharklike fish that is Troll's personal totem.
Rare fossils include annelid worms, crabs, a spiny lobster, a ratfish, a ray, a few bony fishes, and the reptiles reported here Reptiles have not been previously reported from the Paleocene or Eocene of any state or province bordering the Great Lakes.
We found that it was called either a ratfish or rabbitfish."