Topic summary
Stem tetrapod
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Tetrapodomorpha.
Stem tetrapoda
The stem Tetrapoda are an grade containing all animals more closely related to extantfour-legged vertebrates than to their closest extant relatives (the lungfish), but excluding the crown groupTetrapoda themselves (i.e. stem tetrapods are paraphyletic and thus do not form a natural group). Thus, the transition from "fish-like" finned sarcopterygians to tetrapods with fully developed limbs and digits occurred among stem tetrapods.