Tiktaalik
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Tiktaalik is a monospecific genus of extinct sarcopterygian from the late Devonian Period, about 375 Mya, having many features similar to those of tetrapods. Tiktaalik is estimated to have had a total
Tiktaalik Chicago
Neil Shubin, one of the paleontologists who discovered Tiktaalik, holding a cast of its skull
Skull showing otic notches above the eyes
Pectoral fin of the Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus fosteri), showing an anatomy common to many lobe-finned fish. The metapterygial axis (a line of rectangular axials) runs down the middle of the fin, flanked by radials which branch away from the midline, and finally very thin fin rays (lepidotrichia)
Acanthostega
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Acanthostega, from Ancient Greek ἄκανθα, meaning "spine", and στέγη, meaning "roof", is an extinct genus of stem-tetrapod, among the first vertebrate animals to have recognizable limbs. It appeared in
Tiktaalik
…recognized as a transitional form. Tiktaalik has subsequently become one of the most widely known fossils of the fish-tetrapod transition, along with Acanthostega and Ichthyostega from Greenland. In 2004, three fossilized Tiktaalik remains were discovered in the Late Devonian fluvial Fram Formation on Ellesmere…
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Holotype skull, Zoological Museum of Copenhagen
Simplified phylogeny of the fish–tetrapod transition.
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