Tinirau (genus)
Holotype of Tinirau clackae and reconstruction drawing
- Simpson Park Mountains, Nevada, USA
Tinirau is an extinct genus of fish from the class of meat -finned fishes ( Sarcopterygii ). Fossils of the genus ( USA) were found in Simpson Park Mountains in Nevada and assigned by an index fossil of the folding Erina disparilis - conodont Biozone of the upper Givetian ( Middle Devonian ). Since the surrounding rock also contains cnidarian fossils from the order of Conulariden, one starts from a marine habitat. Only species described so far is Tinirau clackae.
Etymology
The genus was named after Tinirau, a figure of Polynesian mythology that is half fish and half man, Lord of the marine life. The Style epithet honors the paleontologist Jenny Clack clackae for their contribution to the understanding of the early equipped with legs sarcopterygians.
Features
The description was based on an approximately 85 cm long, made of skulls and postcranial existing holotype and five paratypes, in which the skull is fully or partially retained and also the two postcranial and limbs have survived.
Tinirau is morphologically between Tristichopteridae and Elpistostegalia, shows the anatomy of the fibula some similarities with subsequent core group of representatives of the Tetrapoda, has, in contrast to the more advanced genera Panderichthys and Tiktaalik but still unpaired fins ( dorsal and anal fin ) and probably lived more aquatic than this. The skull, which covers only 25 % of the length forward of the center line through the orbit corresponds to the rather primitive flesh -finned fishes such as the Rhizodontidae or Canowindridae.
System
Tinirau is assigned to the Eotetrapodiformes, a Fleischflossergruppe, the increasing adaptation to an amphibious life showed and finally emerged from the land vertebrates ( Tetrapoda ).
The systematic position cladogram shows the following:
Elpistostegalia → terrestrial vertebrates ( Tetrapoda )
Platycephalichthys
Tinirau
Tristichopteridae
Medoevia
Osteolepis
Gyroptychius
Canowindridae
Rhizodontidae
Kenichthys