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Tetrapodomorpha
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Tetrapodomorph)
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Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (March 2007) |
| Tetrapodomorphs Fossil range: late Early Devonian - Recent |
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 The basal tetrapodomorph Tiktaalik.
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- Panderichthys, suited to muddy shallows;
- Tiktaalik with limb-like fins that could take it onto land;
- Early tetrapods in weed-filled swamps, such as:
- Acanthostega which had feet with eight digits,
- Ichthyostega with limbs.
Tetrapodomorpha is a clade of vertebrates, consisting of sarcopterygians with a number of features of tetrapods. Primitive forms, like Tiktaalik, have been referred to as "fishapods" by their discoverers, since they were half-fish half-tetrapods, at least in appearance.
Tetrapodomorpha contains the true tetrapods and several groups of related lobe-finned fishes, collectively known as the osteolepiforms.
Among the characters defining the tetrapodomorphs are modifications to the fins, notably a humerus with convex head articulating with the glenoid fossa (the socket of the shoulder joint).
Tetrapodomorph fossils are known from the early Devonian onwards, and include Osteolepis and Panderichthys.
- Class Sarcopterygii
- Subclass TETRAPODOMORPHA
- Kenichthys
- Order Rhizodontida
- Superorder Osteolepidida (or Osteolepiformes)
- Family Osteolepididae
- Family Tristichopteridae
- Family Megalichthyidae
- Family Canowindridae
- (unranked) Elpistostegalia
- Order Panderichthyida
- Tiktaalik
- Livoniana
- Metaxygnathus
- Ventastega
- Superclass Tetrapoda
- Subclass TETRAPODOMORPHA
- After Benton, 2004 [1]:
- Mikko Haaramo. Tetrapodomorpha - Terrestrial vertebrate-like sarcopterygians. Retrieved on 6 April 2006.
- P. E. Ahlberg and Z. Johanson (1998). "Osteolepiforms and the ancestry of tetrapods". Nature 395 (6704): 792–794. doi:10.1038/27421.
- Michel Laurin, Marc Girondot and Armand de Ricqlès (2000). "Early tetrapod evolution". TREE 15 (3).