''Metaxygnathus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

ichthyostegalia Ichthyostegalia is an obsolete order of early 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 ...

n found in Late

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

deposits of New South Wales,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It is known only from a lower jawbone. Previously thought to be a

lobe-finned fish 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 ...

, it has now been reassigned to the earliest group of tetrapodomorphs.

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 Stegocephali Prehistoric lobe-finned fish genera Late Devonian sarcopterygians Devonian sarcopterygians of Australia Fossil taxa described in 1977 Fauna of New South Wales Famennian genera {{Paleo-tetrapodomorph-stub