Elpistostege
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Elpistostege Temporal range: Late Devonian |
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| Fossil skull | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sarcopterygii |
| Clade: | Tetrapodomorpha |
| Clade: | Elpistostegalia |
| Clade: | Stegocephalia |
| Genus: | †Elpistostege |
| Species: | †E. watsoni |
| Binomial name | |
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Elpistostege watsoni Westoll, 1938 |
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Elpistostege is an extinct genus of tetrapod-like vertebrate that lived in the Late Devonian period (Late Givetian to Early Frasnian). Fossils of its skull and a part of its backbone have been found in rocks of the Escuminac Formation in Quebec, Canada. A complete specimen of the animal has since been found in the same formation. It has been proposed, by the palaeontologist Richard Cloutier at Université du Québec à Rimouski, that this species may dethrone its close relative Tiktaalik in the position of the most primitive stem-tetrapod, though phylogenetic analyses have shown them to be very close relatives.
An analysis conducted by Swartz in 2012 found Elpistostege to be the sister taxon of Tiktaalik. Both were found to be primitive members of the group Stegocephalia, along with other primitive stem-tetrapods.
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