Talk:Sarcopterygii
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is this the club finned fish ?
[edit] Crossopterygian
Crossopterygian redirects here, but does not appear in the article. Can someone explain? Thanks. — Epastore 03:32, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
The phrase "these fish may be ancestors of land vertebrates" may be a bit misleading in the context of this article. It is likely that an ancient animal that we would classify as a Sarcopterygian (e.g. Tiktaalik) did in fact give rise to land vertebrates, but as the scope of this article encompasses extant Sarcopterygii as well, I suggest changing this to "these fish may be related to the ancestor of land vertebrates" or “ancestral members of this class may have also given rise to land vertebrates.” This may help to alleviate any potential confusion of the "if land vertebrates evolved from Sarcopterygians, why are there still Sarcopterygians?" sort. TimAEvans 20:55, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Ocean-dwellers
There's a picture of a coelacanth on the page, with the caption "Coelacanths are the only sarcopterygians that live in the ocean"
Since whales live in the ocean, whales are mammals, mammals are tetrapods, and tetrapods are sarcopterygians, isn't this statement untrue? 75.165.1.80 19:53, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Development of fin morphology
If sarcopterygians developed in the ocean, what's the understanding on why their caracteristic "stalked" fins evolved? Bottom dwellers that could use the ability to better navigate around objects? Pelagic but with better fine-motor fin control skills? Something else entirely? --Tropylium (talk) 10:47, 9 June 2008 (UTC)