''Qikiqtania'' (pronounced "kick-kiq-tani-ahh") is an extinct genus of elpistostegalian

tetrapodomorph The Tetrapodomorpha (also known as Choanata) are a clade of vertebrates consisting of tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates) and their closest sarcopterygian relatives that are more closely related to living tetrapods than to living lungfish. Advance ...

from the

Late Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, wher ...

(early

Frasnian The Frasnian is one of two faunal stages in the Late Devonian Period. It lasted from million years ago to million years ago. It was preceded by the Givetian Stage and followed by the Famennian Stage. Major reef-building was under way during th ...

stage)

Fram Formation The Fram Formation is an Upper Devonian (Frasnian) sequence of rock strata on Ellesmere Island that came into prominence in 2006 with the discovery in its rocks of examples of the transitional fossil, ''Tiktaalik'', a sarcopterygian or lobe-finn ...

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The genus contains a single species, ''Q. wakei'', known from a partial skeleton. Analysis of the fin bones suggests that ''Qikiqtania'' was well-suited to swimming, and likely incapable of walking or supporting itself out of the water, as has been suggested for the closely related ''

Tiktaalik ''Tiktaalik'' (; Inuktitut ) is a monospecific genus of extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned fish) from the Late Devonian Period, about 375 Mya (million years ago), having many features akin to those of tetrapods (four-legged animals). It may ha ...

''.

Discovery and naming

The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

specimen of ''Qikiqtania'', NUFV 137, was discovered in 2004 in layers of the late

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

(

)-dated

of southern

Ellesmere Island Ellesmere Island ( iu, script=Latn, Umingmak Nuna, lit=land of muskoxen; french: île d'Ellesmere) is Canada's northernmost and List of Canadian islands by area, third largest island, and the List of islands by area, tenth largest in the world. ...

, Canada. The holotype specimen consists of lower jaws, partial left

upper jaw The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The t ...

and

palate The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly sepa ...

gulars Snakes, like other reptiles, have skin covered in scales.Boulenger, George A. 1890 The Fauna of British India. p. 1 Snakes are entirely covered with scales or scutes of various shapes and sizes, known as snakeskin as a whole. A scale protects th ...

, ceratohyals, an articulated left

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

and various articulated

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...

. The fossil remains of Qikiqtania were discovered east of the site where Tiktaalik was discovered, but from a slightly lower horizon in the formation. In 2022, Thomas A. Stewart, Justin B. Lemberg, Ailis Daly, Edward B. Daeschler, and

Neil H. Shubin Neil Shubin (born December 22, 1960) is an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer. He is the Robert R. Bensley Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, Associate Dean of Organismal Biology and Anatomy and ...

named and described ''Qikiqtania wakei'' based on these remains. The generic name, "''Qikiqtania''," is derived from the

Inuktitut Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...

words "

Qikiqtaaluk Qikiqtaaluk (ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ formerly Sillem Island is an uninhabited island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is the second largest (after Bylot Island) of the several hundred islands and islets that are located in Baffin Bay, ...

" and "Qikiqtani", which represent the traditional names for the fossil site. The specific name, "''wakei''," honors the evolutionary biologist

David Wake David Burton Wake (June 8, 1936 – April 29, 2021) was an American herpetologist. He was professor of integrative biology and Director and curator of herpetology of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. Wak ...

Description

''Qikiqtania'' had strong jaws that would have allowed it to securely bite and hold prey. It had a row of teeth and fangs inside its mouth, and it would have drawn food into its mouth using suction. CT scans of the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

containing the fin revealed a complete limb inside. These scans allowed the describing authors to better understand and interpret the fossil material. The fin bones of ''Qikiqtania'' were not sturdy enough to support its body on land, so it would have lived entirely in the water. Its

humerus The humerus (; ) is a long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. It connects the scapula and the two bones of the lower arm, the radius and ulna, and consists of three sections. The humeral upper extremity consists of a roun ...

does not show any indication of the well-developed muscle-attachment points seen in related semi-

subaerial In natural science, subaerial (literally "under the air"), has been used since 1833,Subaerial
in the Merriam ...

taxa. This is in contrast to ''

'', which would have been able to prop itself up in shallow water or on land and use its limbs for support. The preserved scales are

rhomboid Traditionally, in two-dimensional geometry, a rhomboid is a parallelogram in which adjacent sides are of unequal lengths and angles are non-right angled. A parallelogram with sides of equal length (equilateral) is a rhombus but not a rhomboid. ...

in shape, generally similar to those of other finned

elpistostegalia Elpistostegalia or Panderichthyida is an order of prehistoric lobe-finned fishes which lived during the Middle Devonian to Late Devonian period (about 385 to 374 million years ago). They represent the advanced tetrapodomorph stock, the fishes m ...

ns. Preserved scales have been found from the trunk, including the dorsal midline and

flank Flank may refer to: * Flank (anatomy), part of the abdomen ** Flank steak, a cut of beef ** Part of the external anatomy of a horse * Flank speed, a nautical term * Flank opening, a chess opening * A term in Australian rules football * The si ...

, the

, and the

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

series. Analysis of the scales revealed sensory canals that would have permitted the animal to detect the flow of water around its body. File:Qikiqtania lower jaw µCT scans.webp, CT scans of the lower jaw File:Qikiqtania fins.webp, Pectoral fin File:Qikiqtania scales.webp, Various preserved scales The holotype individual would have had a total body length of around , which is smaller than most

elpistostegalians Elpistostegalia or Panderichthyida is an order of prehistoric lobe-finned fishes which lived during the Middle Devonian to Late Devonian period (about 385 to 374 million years ago). They represent the advanced tetrapodomorph stock, the fishes m ...

Classification

''Qikiqtania'' represents an elpistostegalian closely related to limbed

tetrapods Tetrapods (; ) are four-limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda (). It includes extant and extinct amphibians, sauropsids (reptiles, including dinosaurs and therefore birds) and synapsids (pelycosaurs, extinct therapsids ...

. In all

phylogenetic analyses In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

, it was recovered as crownward to ''

Panderichthys ''Panderichthys'' is a genus of extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned fish) from the late Devonian period, about 380 Mya. ''Panderichthys'', which was recovered from Frasnian (early Late Devonian) deposits in Latvia, is represented by two species. ...

''. The

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...

below displays the results of the phylogenetic analyses by Stewart ''et al''. (2022):

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q113165695 Devonian fish of North America Elpistostegalians Fossil taxa described in 2022 Late Devonian animals Paleozoic life of Nunavut Prehistoric lobe-finned fish genera Taxa named by Neil Shubin Taxa named by Ted Daeschler