Hyneria

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iHyneria
Fossil range: Devonian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Sarcopterygii
Subclass: Tetrapodomorpha
Superorder: Osteolepidida
Family: Tristichopteridae
Genus: Hyneria
Binomial name
Hyneria lindae

Hyneria was a prehistoric predatory lobe-finned fish that lived during the Devonian period. It was approximately three to four meters in length and weighed as much as two tons. Fossilized teeth, bones and a tail fin were found at Red Hill. Hyneria was a member of the family Tristichopteridae, along with its close relative Eusthenopteron.

[edit] In popular culture

Hyneria attacking the shark Stethacanthus, as depicted in Walking With Monsters.
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Hyneria attacking the shark Stethacanthus, as depicted in Walking With Monsters.

Hyneria was featured in the BBC's television series Walking With Monsters. It featured a beached female Hyneria attempting to catch prey by sliding along the muddy ground like a walrus to catch two Hynerpeton (with the narrator explaining that it could "attack like a killer whale after a seal"). This behavior is entirely speculative, based on the fact that the fish had powerful fleshy fins, like those of a coelocanth, that could possibly have enabled it to move short distances on land (though most modern researchers consider tetrapods and their ancestors to have been mainly aquatic).

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