Eusthenopteron was a genus of lobe finned fish from the Late Devonian time period that were closely related to Tetrapods. It was mentioned in the The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life in the Hyneria entry.
Facts
Eusthenopteron is a genus of prehistoric sarcopterygian fishes (often called lobe-finned fishes) which has attained an iconic status from its close relationships to tetrapods. Early depictions of this animal show it emerging onto land, however paleontologists now widely agree that it was a strictly aquatic animal.
The genus Eusthenopteron is known from several species that lived during the Late Devonian period, about 385 MYA. Eusthenopteron was first described by J. F. Whiteaves in 1881, as part of a large collection of fishes from Miguasha, Quebec.
Some 2,000 Eusthenopteron specimens have been collected from Miguasha, one of which was the object of intensely detailed study and several papers from the 1940s to the 1990s by paleoichthyologist Erik Jarvik.