Osteolepiformes

Osteolepiformes Temporal range: 396–299 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N Middle Devonian to Late Carboniferous
Osteolepis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Tetrapodomorpha
Order:	†Osteolepiformes
Families
†Megalichthyidae †Osteolepidae

Osteolepiformes are a group of prehistoric lobe-finned fishes which first appeared during the Devonian period. The order contains two families: Megalichthyidae and Osteolepidae. The Order is generally considered to be paraphyletic because the characters that define it are mainly attributes of stem tetrapodomorphs.^[1]

Below is a cladogram showing the Osteolepiformes modified from Swartz 2012.^[2]

Osteolepiformes	†Gogonasus andrewsae Long 1985 †Gyroptychius Jarvik 1948 †Osteolepidae †Medoevia lata Lebedev 1995 †Megalichthyidae Long 1985

References

1. Ahlberg, P. E.; Johanson, Z. (1998). "Osteolepiforms and the ancestry of tetrapods" (PDF). Nature 395 (6704): 792–794. Bibcode:1998Natur.395..792A. doi:10.1038/27421.
2. Swartz, B. (2012). "A marine stem-tetrapod from the Devonian of Western North America". PLoS ONE 7 (3): e33683. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033683. PMC: 3308997. PMID 22448265.