Early tetrapod
Ichthyostega
Ichthyostega was an early limbed vertebrate with a deep body and a tail retaining a fin.
Ichthyostega was an early limbed vertebrate with a deep body and a tail retaining a fin. Its skeleton combines features associated with water and the emerging history of movement on land.
Three stages. One companion.
Game artwork
AI-generated, stylized game illustrations. These designs and growth stages are imaginative, not scientific reconstructions.
Ichthyostega at a glance
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Its feeding structures are interpreted as adapted to taking animal prey.
- When it lived
- Late Devonian
- Group
- Ichthyostegidae
- Ichthyostegidae
Beyond the game
The real Ichthyostega
Ichthyostega was an early limbed vertebrate with a deep body and a tail retaining a fin. Its skeleton combines features associated with water and the emerging history of movement on land.
Its limb and trunk construction differs from that of a living salamander. The skeleton has been central to studies of how early tetrapods supported and moved their bodies.
Fossil discoveries
Selected fossil records · present-day map
Map references
Map: Natural Earth, public domain. Fossil records: Paleobiology Database and linked collections and publications.Sources & text credits
Explore the references behind this profile.
- Polydactyly in the earliest known tetrapod limbs
- Paleobiology Database: Ichthyostega stensioei (txn:229326)
Original English Dinosgacha summaries informed by the linked scientific and museum references; source publications retain their own rights.