The Fram Formation is an Upper Devonian (

Frasnian The Frasnian is one of two faunal stages in the Late Devonian Period. It lasted from million years ago to million years ago. It was preceded by the Givetian Stage and followed by the Famennian Stage. Major reef-building was under way during ...

) sequence of rock strata on

Ellesmere Island Ellesmere Island (; ) is Canada's northernmost and List of Canadian islands by area, third largest island, and the List of islands by area, tenth largest in the world. It comprises an area of , slightly smaller than Great Britain, and the total ...

that came into prominence in 2006 with the discovery in its rocks of examples of the

transitional fossil A transitional fossil is any fossilized remains of a life form that exhibits traits common to both an ancestral group and its derived descendant group. This is especially important where the descendant group is sharply differentiated by gross ...

, ''

Tiktaalik ''Tiktaalik'' (; ) is a monospecific genus of extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned fish) from the Late Devonian Period, about 375 Mya (million years ago), having many features akin to those of tetrapods (four-legged animals). ''Tiktaalik'' is est ...

'', a

sarcopterygian Sarcopterygii (; )—sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii ()—is a clade (traditionally a class or subclass) of vertebrate animals which includes a group of bony fish commonly referred to as lobe-finned fish. These vertebrates ar ...

or lobe-finned fish showing many

tetrapod A tetrapod (; from Ancient Greek :wiktionary:τετρα-#Ancient Greek, τετρα- ''(tetra-)'' 'four' and :wiktionary:πούς#Ancient Greek, πούς ''(poús)'' 'foot') is any four-Limb (anatomy), limbed vertebrate animal of the clade Tetr ...

characteristics. Fossils of '' Laccognathus embryi'', a porolepiform lobe-finned fish, and '' Qikiqtania'', a close relative of ''Tiktaalik'', were also found in the formation. The Fram Formation is a Middle to Upper Devonian clastic wedge forming an extensive continental facies consisting of sediments derived from deposits laid down in

braided stream A braided river (also called braided channel or braided stream) consists of a network of river channels separated by small, often temporary, islands called '' braid bars'' or, in British English usage, '' aits'' or ''eyots''. Braided streams t ...

systems that formed some 375 million years ago, Fossil pollen suggest that these rocks lie within the early and middle

Stage of the Devonian. at a time when the

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

craton A craton ( , , or ; from "strength") is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, which consists of Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the uppermost mantle. Having often survived cycles of merging and rifting of contine ...

Laurentia Laurentia or the North American craton is a large continental craton that forms the Geology of North America, ancient geological core of North America. Many times in its past, Laurentia has been a separate continent, as it is now in the form of ...

") was straddling the equator.

Paleobiota

Vertebrates

References

{{reflist
Edward B. Daeschler, Neil H. Shubin and Farish A. Jenkins Jr, 2006. "A Devonian tetrapod-like fish and the evolution of the tetrapod body plan" ''Nature'', April 2006, pp 757ff
(pdf file) Fram Formation Fluvial deposits Devonian southern paleotropical deposits Upper Devonian Series

Paleobiota

Vertebrates

See also

References