Eusthenopteron
Sign in to saveEusthenopteron (from 'stout', and 'wing' or 'fin') is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine lobe-finned fish known from several species that lived during the Late Devonian period, about 385 million years ago. It has attained an iconic status from its close relationship to tetrapods. Early depictions of animals of this genus show them emerging onto land, but paleontologists now think that Eusthenopteron species were strictly aquatic animals, though this is not completely known.
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- Eusthenopteron foordi 1.JPG
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- taxon name
- Eusthenopteron
- Commons category
- Eusthenopteron
- start time
- 385000000-
- end time
- 385000000-
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- Taxonomy
- Description
- Anatomy
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Eusthenopteron (from 'stout', and 'wing' or 'fin') is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine lobe-finned fish known from several species that lived during the Late Devonian period, about 385 million years ago. It has attained an iconic status from its close relationship to tetrapods. Early depictions of animals of this genus show them emerging onto land, but paleontologists now think that Eusthenopteron species were strictly aquatic animals, though this is not completely known.
The genus was first described by J. F. Whiteaves in 1881, as part of a large collection of fishes from Miguasha, Quebec, Canada. Some 2,000 Eusthenopteron specimens have been collected from Miguasha, one of which was the object of intensely detailed study and several papers by paleoichthyologist Erik Jarvik between the 1940s and the 1990s. Further species have been described from other parts of Canada and northern Europe, indicating that this genus had a wide distribution.