Eusthenopteron (SciiFii)

Eusthenopteron is a genus of prehistoric sarcopterygian (often called lobe-finned fishes) which has attained an iconic status from its close relationships to tetrapods. The name derives from two Greek stems—eustheno-"strength" and -pteron "wing" and thus "strongly developed fins".[1] Early depictions of this animal show it emerging onto land; however, paleontologists now widely agree that it was a strictly aquatic animal.[2] The genus Eusthenopteron is known from several species that lived during the Late Devonian period, about 385 million years ago. Eusthenopteron was first described by J. F. Whiteaves in 1881, as part of a large collection of fishes from Miguasha, Quebec.[3] Some 2,000 Eusthenopteron specimens have been collected from Miguasha, one of which was the object of intensely detailed study and several papers from the 1940s to the 1990s by paleoichthyologistErik Jarvik.[4]