''Meemannia'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of extinct

bony fish Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartila ...

from the early

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, w ...

period. It was initially classified as a lobe-finned fish; however, a restudy conducted by Lu ''et al.'' (2016) indicates that it was actually an early-diverging

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or h ...

. It was found in

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...

, China. As preserved, it consists mainly of skull roofing bones and a partial otic region of the braincase. Its anatomy is unique in a number of features that resemble ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii), and more generalized jawed vertebrates. It was described in the May 4, 2006 edition of

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...

, and named after Meemann Chang.

References

Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Devonian bony fish Fossils of China Fossil taxa described in 2006 {{paleo-rayfinned-fish-stub