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:iconeofish: #Eofish
Fleshy Lobes and Body Armor

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October 24, 2012
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:icongogosardina:
2012, acrylics on canvasboard

409 million years ago, Early Devonian (Pragian), Yunnan, China

Described in October 2012, Tungsenia paradoxa is the oldest and most primitive known tetrapodomorph, the vertebrate group that includes the tetrapods (limbed-vertebrates) and their immediate fish relatives (Eusthenopteron, Gogonasus, Tiktaalik etc). It was a small (less than 20 cm long) predator that lived in shallow marine waters off Early Devonian China.

This critter possessed key tetrapodomorph characters (teardrop shaped recess in front of the optic foramen, hole for the pituitary vein in the basipterygoid process, flat parasymphysial dental plates etc) combined with a host of archaic features that it shared with with the earliest representatives of the dipnomorph clan (lungfishes and their kin, the sister-group to the tetrapodomorphs) including a broad parasphenoid and paired internasal pits.

This represents a very early stem-tetrapod fish, only a few million years after the tetrapodomorphs and dipnomorphs went their separate evolutionary ways during the Late Silurian. The whole tetrapod dynasty, from finches to frogs, cats to chasmosaurs, not to mention Homo sapiens, can trace their lineage to a little fishy like this.

[link]

SOURCE: Jing Lu, Min Zhu, John A. Long, Wenjin Zhao, Tim J. Senden, Liantao Jia & Tuo Qiao (2012) The earliest known stem-tetrapod from the Lower Devonian of China. Nature Communications 3, Article number:1160
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:iconvasix:
~vasix Oct 27, 2012  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Whenever people find a new tetrapodomorph, they go nuts about it. The same is happening to this too, is it?
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:icongogosardina:
*Gogosardina Oct 28, 2012  Professional Traditional Artist
For the most part - unfortunately some reporters are assuming that since this is a "stem-tetrapod", it must also mean that it had limbs and crawled out of the water...
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:iconvasix:
~vasix Oct 28, 2012  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Reporters like a good story
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:iconolofmoleman:
~olofmoleman Oct 27, 2012
Lovely!
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:iconmankrikscow:
~mankrikscow Oct 26, 2012
naw, he looks cute :3
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:icongogosardina:
*Gogosardina Oct 28, 2012  Professional Traditional Artist
Yeah, based on his skull and jaw contours, he did have a bit of a dolphin-grin
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:icondrhoz:
~Drhoz Oct 25, 2012  Hobbyist Traditional Artist
neat :) how long until the creationists start whining that it's just a fish and that it just opens up another gap in the record?
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:iconpilsator:
~pilsator Oct 24, 2012  Hobbyist Traditional Artist
Wonderful! The ranks of fish-a-pods are growing :)
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:icongogosardina:
*Gogosardina Oct 28, 2012  Professional Traditional Artist
That they are!
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:iconfractalfiend:
*fractalfiend Oct 24, 2012
Beautiful!
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