Tiktaalik roseae fossil. Photo used from Wikimedia Commons, uploaded by Eduard Solà.

A Transitional Fishapod

Welcome to our website about Tiktaalik roseae, a transitional fishapod! Tiktaalik roseae is now extinct, but lived around 375 million years ago during the Mid to Late Devonian Period (The University of Chicago, 2006). Tiktaalik is very important for understanding the transition of animals from water to land. Tiktaalik retained both fish and tetrapod characteristics. Its fish characteristics include scales, fins, and gills, and its tetrapod characteristics include a neck, ribs capable of bearing weight, a flat head, dorsally positioned eyes, a fin skeleton, and ear notches (The University of Chicago, 2006). Because it had both fish and tetrapod characteristics, Tiktaalik has been called a transitional fishapod.

Tiktaalik roseae drawing. Photo used from Wikimedia Commons, uploaded by Nobu Tamura.

 

Classification >

 

To learn about many more fascinating organisms, visit MultipleOrganisms.net!