Fish
Tiktaalik
Tiktaalik combined a flattened fish-like head with a mobile neck and limb-like structures inside its paired fins.
Tiktaalik combined a flattened fish-like head with a mobile neck and limb-like structures inside its paired fins. It provides a striking example of features appearing in combination during vertebrate evolution.
Three stages. One companion.
Game artwork
AI-generated, stylized game illustrations. These designs and growth stages are imaginative, not scientific reconstructions.
Tiktaalik at a glance
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Its feeding structures are interpreted as adapted to taking animal prey.
- When it lived
- Late Devonian
- Group
- Panderichthyidae
- Panderichthyidae
Beyond the game
The real Tiktaalik
Tiktaalik combined a flattened fish-like head with a mobile neck and limb-like structures inside its paired fins. It provides a striking example of features appearing in combination during vertebrate evolution.
The paired fins retained fish anatomy while containing structures relevant to the origin of limbs. The mobile neck and flattened skull add other pieces to that evolutionary comparison.
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.
- A Devonian tetrapod-like fish and the evolution of the tetrapod body plan
- Paleobiology Database: Tiktaalik roseae (txn:77136)
Original English Dinosgacha summaries informed by the linked scientific and museum references; source publications retain their own rights.