images

Ichthyostega

by

Walter B. Myers/Novapix

Reference

t-glb91-03005

Date

2011-07-30

A Late Devonian Ichthyostega submerged in a floodplain 365 million years ago in what is today the Canadian Arctic. The tree-like trunk immediately behind the Ichthyostega is the base of a Pleuromeia. The Ichthyostega is eyeing a drowned centipede. Ichthyostega was one of the earliest tetrapods, a descendent of lobe-finned fishes and ancestor of amphibians. Ichthyostega had lungs and seven-toed limbs that allowed it to move about the shallow waters and shores of swamps and floodplains. It was among the first terrestrial vertebrates.