Osteolepididae is a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of primitive, fish-like

tetrapodomorph Tetrapodomorpha (also known as Choanata) is a clade of vertebrates consisting of tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates) and their closest sarcopterygian relatives that are more closely related to living tetrapods than to living lungfish. Advanced for ...

s (the

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

that contains modern

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 ...

s and their extinct relatives) that lived during the

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 ...

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Period (punctuation) * Era, a length or span of time *Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period" Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (o ...

. The family is generally thought to be

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

, with the traits that characterise the family being widely distributed among basal tetrapodomorphs and other

osteichthyan Osteichthyes ( ; ), also known as osteichthyans or commonly referred to as the bony fish, is a Biodiversity, diverse clade of vertebrate animals that have endoskeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondricht ...

s. Some of the genera historically placed in Osteolepididae have more recently been assigned to the family

Megalichthyidae Megalichthyidae is an extinct family (biology), family of tetrapodomorphs which lived from the Middle Devonian, Middle–Late Devonian to the Early Permian. They are known primarily from freshwater deposits, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere (Eur ...

, which appears to be a

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

group.

Genera

Below is a list of genera regarded as osteolepidids at some point: * ''

Chrysolepis ''Chrysolepis'' is a small genus of plants in the family Fagaceae, endemic to the western United States. Its two species have the common name chinquapin. The genus occurs from western Washington south to the Transverse Ranges in Southern Califo ...

'' * '' Ectosteorhachis'' * '' Geptolepis'' * ''

Glyptopomus ''Glyptopomus'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric sarcopterygian Sarcopterygii (; )—sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii ()—is a clade (traditionally a class or subclass) of vertebrate animals which includes a group of bon ...

'' * ''

Gogonasus ''Gogonasus'' (meaning "snout from Gogo") was a lobe-finned fish known from three-dimensionally preserved 380-million-year-old fossils found from the Gogo Formation in Western Australia. It lived in the Late Devonian period, on what was once a ...

'' * '' Greiserolepis'' * '' Gyroptychius'' * "''Diplopterus''" * ''

Kenichthys ''Kenichthys'' is a genus of sarcopterygian fish from the Devonian period, and a member of the clade Tetrapodomorpha. The only known species of the genus is ''Kenichthys campbelli'' (named for the Australian palaeontologist Ken Campbell), the f ...

'' * ''

Latvius ''Latvius'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric sarcopterygian or lobe-finned fish. See also *Sarcopterygii *List of sarcopterygians *List of prehistoric bony fish This list of prehistoric bony fish is an attempt to create a comprehensive lis ...

'' * '' Medoevia'' * ''

Megalichthys ''Megalichthys'' is a genus of prehistoric lobe-finned fish which lived during the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. It is the type genus of the family Megalichthyidae. The type species is ''M. hibberti''. The species ''M. mullisoni,'' named f ...

'' * ''

Megapomus ''Megapomus'' is a genus of prehistoric lobe-finned fish which lived during the Carboniferous period The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period M ...

'' * ''

Megistolepis ''Megistolepis'' is a genus of prehistoric lobe-finned fish which lived during the Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 ...

'' * '' Muranjilepis'' * ''

Osteolepis ''Osteolepis'' (from 'bone' and 'scale') is an extinct genus of lobe-finned fish from the Devonian period. It lived in the Lake Orcadie of northern Scotland. Description ''Osteolepis'' was about long, and covered with large, square scale ...

'' * '' Peregrina'' * '' Shirolepis'' * '' Thursius''

References

Tetrapodomorph families Devonian sarcopterygians Devonian first appearances Devonian extinctions Paraphyletic groups Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope {{paleo-tetrapodomorph-stub