OLIVE, S., AHLBERG, P.E., PERNÈGRE, V.N., POTY, &., STEURBAUT, &., CLÉMENT, G. 2016. New discoveries of tetrapods (ichthyostegid‐like and whatcheeriid‐like) in the Famennian (Late Devonian) localities of Strud and Becco (Belgium). Palaeontology, 59, 6, 827-840. DOI: 10.1111/pala.12261
Sébastien Olive, Per E. Ahlberg, Vincent N. Pernègre, Édouard Poty, Étienne Steurbaut, and Gaël Clément- Sébastien Olive - OD Earth & History of Life Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Brussels Belgium (Email: sebastien.olive@sciencesnaturelles.be)
- Sébastien Olive - Evolution & Diversity Dynamics Lab Department of Geology Liège University Liège Belgium
- Per E. Ahlberg - Department of Organismal Biology Subdepartment of Evolution & Development Uppsala University Uppsala Sweden (Email: per.ahlberg@ebc.uu.se)
- Vincent N. Pernègre - Direction des Collections UGC de Paléontologie Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle Paris Cedex 05 France (Email: pernegre@mnhn.fr)
- Édouard Poty - Evolution & Diversity Dynamics Lab Department of Geology Liège University Liège Belgium (Email: e.poty@ulg.ac.be)
- Étienne Steurbaut - OD Earth & History of Life Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Brussels Belgium (Email: etienne.steurbaut@naturalsciences.be)
- Étienne Steurbaut - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Leuven Belgium
- Gaël Clément - CR2P UMR 7207 Sorbonne Universités CNRS/MNHN/UPMC Paris Cedex 05 France (Email: gclement@mnhn.fr)
- Manuscript Accepted: 17 August 2016
- Manuscript Received: 28 June 2016
The origin of tetrapods is one of the key events in vertebrate history. The oldest tetrapod body fossils are Late Devonian (Frasnian–Famennian) in age, most of them consisting of rare isolated bone elements. Here we describe tetrapod remains from two Famennian localities from Belgium: Strud, in the Province of Namur, and Becco, in the Province of Liège. The newly collected material consists of an isolated complete postorbital, fragments of two maxillae, and one putative partial cleithrum, all from Strud, and an almost complete maxilla from Becco. The two incomplete maxillae and cleithrum from Strud, together with the lower jaw previously recorded from this site, closely resemble the genus Ichthyostega, initially described from East Greenland. The postorbital from Strud and the maxilla from Becco do not resemble the genus Ichthyostega. They show several derived anatomical characters allowing their tentative assignment to a whatcheeriid‐grade group. The new tetrapod records show that there are at least two tetrapod taxa in Belgium and almost certainly two different tetrapod taxa at Strud. This locality joins the group of Devonian tetrapod‐bearing localities yielding more than one tetrapod taxon, confirming that environments favourable to early tetrapod life were often colonized by several tetrapod taxa.
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