''Metaxygnathus'' is an extinct

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 ...

ichthyostegalia Ichthyostegalia is an order of extinct amphibians, representing the earliest landliving vertebrates. The group is thus an evolutionary grade rather than a clade. While the group are recognized as having feet rather than fins, most, if not all, ...

n found in Late

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 ...

deposits of New South Wales, Australia . It is known only from a lower jawbone. Previously thought to be a lobe-finned fish, it has now been reassigned to the earliest group of

tetrapod Tetrapods (; ) are four-limb (anatomy), limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda (). It includes extant taxon, extant and extinct amphibians, sauropsids (reptiles, including dinosaurs and therefore birds) and synapsids (p ...

References

*Campbell, K.S.W. and M.W. Bell. 1977. "A primitive amphibian from the Late Devonian of New South Wales." Alcheringa 1: 369–382.

External links

''Metaxygnathus denticulatus''
at Devonian Times Ichthyostegalia Prehistoric amphibians of Australia Paleozoic vertebrates of Oceania Paleozoic animals of Australia Late Devonian animals Devonian Oceania Fossil taxa described in 1977 Prehistoric tetrapod genera Fauna of New South Wales {{Labyrinthodontia-stub