Talk:Ichthyostega

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Contents 1 Recent work (2005) 2 Redirect 3 Land or swamps? 4 The illustration 5 Edited a bit 6 Images Update

[edit] Recent work (2005)

The illustration is definitely out of date. Jenny Clack (Cambridge) and Henning Blom (Uppsala) have done significant work on Ichthyostega over the past few years, substantially altering ideas about it. See Jenny's web site at http://www.theclacks.org.uk/jac.

The manus is still unknown, but most of Jarvik's work has been extensively revised. I'm brand new to Wikipedia so mostly don't know how to do things, for instance, updating the picture. Rob Clack 12:52, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Redirect

Oops! In the edit summary field for the article I really meant 'avoid redirect', not disambig of course. Andrewa 18:07, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Land or swamps?

This article appears to disagree with itself on whether the Ichthyostega walked on land or not. At the start of the article, it says that the Ichtyostega probably didnt 'walk' with its limbs at all, but the rest of the article acts as if it did. I suppose there is disagreement regarding this, but the article should probably mention that rather than just being confusing. Is there anyone who actually knows anything about Ichthyostega who could clear this up? Oscar Evans 22:12, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

• I slightly remember a national geographic article (about a year (or 2?) ago) about Acanthostega and Ichthyostega that noted something like 'of course these animals didn't walk the land', they used their strong fins to move away plants in the shallow water'. I'll take a look at it. Phlebas 20:41, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The illustration

I doubt the illustration used in this article is correct. It gives the impression that the animal had well developed feet adapted for actual walking. Since newer evidence tells that Ichthyostega never looked like that, the illustration is probably a little too old.

I have added a more accurate image today. But I did not replace the one in the taxobox, below is the image:

Ichthyostega would probably slide on wet surfaces (i.e. mud) rather than walk. The image correctly shows that Ichthyostega's hind limbs were poorly developed. Giant Blue Anteater 23:00, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Edited a bit

"Amphibians gained a tremendous advantage by moving on land as they could avoid large predatory fish that ruled the rivers and lakes."

Most of the early tetrapods were large predators themselves, and Ichthyostega was not a true amphibian if I have understood it correctly. And there where other advantages by moving onto land than just avoiding predators, and just as important.

"The move also came with disadvantages such as the new requirement of a moist, gas-permeable skin in order to aid the inefficient lungs."

This only goes for modern amphibians. The first tetrapods had thick skin and their lungs where good enough to supply them with air.

[edit] Images Update

The old image in the template box was indeed outdated, based on a faulty sketch from the 60s. I re-drew it, based on [1] reconstruction in 2005.

I also deleted Giant Blue Anteater's image, as it looked pretty unprofessional and cartoonish.

--Meneitherfabio 17:10, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

That picture (the redrawn one) is more accurate. But thats the way I draw, but tried to make as accurate as possible. Sorry. Giant Blue Anteater 01:23, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Many thanks to both of you for improving on the accuracy of the illustration. As a professional involved in illustration, though not a professional illustrator, I'd point out that personal style is a matter of taste and very difficult to eliminate. The newer illustration is more in line with the "house style" of uncoloured line drawings used for most of these beasts, but the line weight of the outline appears too fine on my set up, and it would look more professional if thickened a bit. I'll incorporate the revised image into the fishapods illustration to the right, but having recently swapped over Eusthenopteron and Panderichthys on finding that the former was pelagic rather than air-breathing in the shallows as thought previously, I'd appreciate any comments on the sequence so that any necessary alterations can be made at the same time. ..dave souza, talk 08:43, 1 October 2006 (UTC)