Sarcopterygii - AccessScience from McGraw-Hill Education http://www.accessscience.com/content/sarcopterygii/601800
Article by: Boschung, Herbert Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Publication year: 2014 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.601800 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.601800)
Content
Bibliography Additional Readings
A class of vertebrates containing the orders Coelacanthiformes (lobefin fishes) and Ceratodontiformes (lungfishes), as well as the Tetrapoda. Based on a consensus of contemporary scholars, a recent classification of extant Sarcopterygii (sarcopterygians) is as follows:
Class Sarcopterygii
Subclass Coelacanthimorpha
Order Coelacanthiformes (lobefin fishes)
Family Coelacanthidae
Subclass Dipnotetrapodomorpha
Order Ceratodontiformes (lungfishes)
Family Ceratodontidae
Family Lepidosirenidae
Family Protopteridae
Infraclass Tetrapoda
The names Amphibioidei and Choanichthyes also appear in the literature, with each being equivalent to Sarcopterygii minus the tetrapods. However, the latter name (Choanichthyes) is certainly inappropriate because not all sarcopterygians have choanae (internal nares that allow passage from the nasal cavity to the mouth). The Sarcopterygii of only what are conventionally called crossopterygians and dipnoans is also still a popular classification. Debates concerning the relationships of the sarcopterygians and the ancestry of tetrapods—that is, whether the origin of the tetrapods occurred within the lungfishes, coelacanths, or rhipidistians (an extinct grouping of lobe-finned fishes)—have persisted for many years and will probably continue into the future. See also: Coelacanthiformes (/content/coelacanthiformes/757501); Dipnoi (/content /dipnoi/198300); Osteichthyes (/content/osteichthyes/478500); Tetrapoda (/content/tetrapoda/687100)
1 of 3 9/18/2015 8:48 AM Sarcopterygii - AccessScience from McGraw-Hill Education http://www.accessscience.com/content/sarcopterygii/601800 Herbert Boschung
Bibliography
W. E. Bemis, W. W. Burggren, and N. E. Kemp (eds.), The Biology and Evolution of Lungfishes, Alan R. Liss, New York, 1987
M.-M. Chang, Rhipidistians, dipnoans, and tetrapods, pp. 3–28, in H.-P. Schultze and L. Trueb (eds.), Origins of the Higher Groups of Tetrapods, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1991
R. Cloutier and P. E. Ahlberg, Morphology, characters, and the interrelationships of basal sarcopterygians, pp. 445–479, in M. L. J. Stiassny, L. R. Parenti, and G. D. Johnson (eds.), Interrelationships of Fishes, Academic Press, San Diego, 1996
J. S. Nelson, Fishes of the World, 4th ed., Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, 2006
N. Takezaki et al., The phylogenetic relationship of tetrapod, coelacanth, and lungfish revealed by the sequences of forty-four nuclear genes, Mol. Biol. Evol., 21(8):1512–1524, 2004 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msh150 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev /msh150)
K. S. Thomson, The origin of the tetrapods, Am. J. Sci., 293A:33–62, 1993 DOI: 10.2475/ajs.293.A.33 (http://dx.doi.org /10.2475/ajs.293.A.33)
G. C. Young, J. A. Long, and A. Richie, Crossopterygian fishes from the Devonian of Antarctica: Systematics, relationships and biogeographical significance, Rec. Aust. Mus.Suppl., 14:1–77, 1992 DOI: 10.3853/j.0812-7387.14.1992.90 (http://dx.doi.org/10.3853/j.0812-7387.14.1992.90)
Additional Readings
Class Sarcopterygii (http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Tree_of_Life/PhylumChordata/sarcopterygii.htm)
Introduction to the Sarcopterygii (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/sarco/sarcopterygii.html)
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