Acanthostega
Sign in to saveAcanthostega, from Ancient Greek ἄκανθα (ákantha), meaning "spine", and στέγη (stégē), meaning "roof", is an extinct genus of stem-tetrapod, among the first vertebrate animals to have recognizable limbs. It appeared in the late Devonian period (Famennian age) about 365 million years ago, and was anatomically intermediate between lobe-finned fishes and those that were able to come onto land.
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Acanthostega model.jpg
- Length
- 60
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- Commons category
- Acanthostega
- taxon name
- Acanthostega
- taxon common name
- 棘螈
- start time
- 365000000-
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Article
11 sectionsContents
- Discovery
- Description
- Classification
- Paleobiology
- Hunting strategy
- Lifestyle
- Development
- See also
- References
- Sources
- External links
Acanthostega, from Ancient Greek ἄκανθα (ákantha), meaning "spine", and στέγη (stégē), meaning "roof", is an extinct genus of stem-tetrapod, among the first vertebrate animals to have recognizable limbs. It appeared in the late Devonian period (Famennian age) about 365 million years ago, and was anatomically intermediate between lobe-finned fishes and those that were able to come onto land.
==Discovery== thumb|left|240px|Holotype skull, Zoological Museum of Copenhagen The fossilized remains are generally well preserved, with the famous fossil by which the significance of this species was discovered being found by Jennifer A. Clack in East Greenland in 1987, though fragments of the skull had been discovered in 1933 by Gunnar Säve-Söderbergh and Erik Jarvik.