Definition of "mudskipper" [mudskipper]

• Any of several fishes of the family Gobiidae, especially of the genus Periophthalmus, that are found along the western coast of tropical Africa and in the Indo-Pacific region and are able to survive out of water and maneuver on land. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But in reading this account, weren’t you struck by how cavalierly the news agency threw out the term mudskipper?"
• "If you’re lucky, you may see a fish called the mudskipper climbing on the roots, using its tail and fins as a makeshift set of legs."
• "A better example than the mudskipper would be the coelacanths, or lobe-fin fish which, along with lungfish, diverged about the same time as tetrapods (as supported by genetic evidence)."