Hyneria
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iHyneria |
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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 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).