Life reconstruction of Harajicadectes zhumini. Image credit: Brian Choo, Flinders University.
SciNews has a story about the discovery of a Devonian tetrapodomorph fish in Australia. Harajicadectes zhumini lived about 380 million years ago near what is now central Australia. The animal was described in the paper "A new stem-tetrapod fish from the Middle–Late Devonian of central Australia" in the journal Vertebrate Paleontology.
“Tetrapodomorpha comprises the limbed tetrapods and their closest fish relatives, whose earliest record is from the Pragian of China,” Dr. Choo and co-authors said.
“The group diversified greatly in both marine and freshwater habitats during the Middle-to-Late Devonian while giving rise to several distinct lineages, including the earliest limbed tetrapods.”
“Whereas the tetrapods flourished after the Devonian, limbless fish-grade tetrapodomorphs underwent a marked reduction in diversity during the Carboniferous, with only a handful of representatives persisting into the early Permian before vanishing from the fossil record.”
