Osteolepididae is an

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

of primitive, fish-like

tetrapodomorph The Tetrapodomorpha (also known as Choanata) are 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. Advanc ...

s (the clade that contains modern

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 ...

s and their extinct relatives) that lived during the

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 Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

. The family is generally thought to be

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

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

osteichthyan 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 cartilage ...

s. Some of 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 cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...

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 (ecology), endemic to the western United States. Its two species have the common name chinquapin. The genus occurs from western Washington (state), Washington south to th ...

'' * ''

Ectosteorhachis ''Ectosteorhachis'' is a genus of prehistoric lobe-finned fish that lived during the Permian period (Cisuralian The Cisuralian is the first Series (stratigraphy), series/Epoch (geology), epoch of the Permian. The Cisuralian was preceded ...

'' * '' Geptolepis'' * '' Glyptopomus'' * ''

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 ''Gyroptychius'' is an extinct genus of osteolepiform lobe-finned fish from the 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 ...

'' * "''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 ...

'' * ''

Latvius ''Latvius'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric sarcopterygian or lobe-finned fish. See also * Sarcopterygii * List of sarcopterygians * List of prehistoric bony fish A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: ...

'' * '' 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 ...

'' * ''

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 that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period mill ...

'' * ''

Megistolepis ''Megistolepis'' is a genus of prehistoric lobe-finned fish Sarcopterygii (; ) — sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii () — is a taxon (traditionally a class or subclass) of the bony fishes known as the lobe-finned fishes ...

'' * ''

Muranjilepis ''Muranjilepis'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric sarcopterygians or lobe-finned fish. See also * Sarcopterygii * List of sarcopterygians * List of prehistoric bony fish A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer ...

'' * ''

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

'' * ''

Peregrina Peregrina may refer to: * ''Jatropha integerrima'', commonly known as ''peregrina'', a species of flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae * ''Peregrina'' (Venezuelan TV series), a 1973 Venezuelan telenovela * ''Peregrina'' (Mexican TV ...

'' * '' Shirolepis'' * ''

Thursius ''Thursius'' is a genus of prehistoric lobe-finned fish. References Prehistoric lobe-finned fish genera Paleozoic life of Quebec {{paleo-lobefinned-fish-stub ...

References

Tetrapodomorphs Devonian bony fish Prehistoric lobe-finned fish families Devonian first appearances Devonian extinctions Paraphyletic groups Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope {{paleo-lobefinned-fish-stub