Lobe-finned fish characterized by fins with fleshy, muscular bases containing bones homologous to tetrapod limbs. This group includes coelacanths, lungfish, and is ancestral to all land vertebrates.
From Greek 'sarx' meaning 'flesh' and 'pterygion' meaning 'fin,' literally 'fleshy-finned.' The term was established in the 19th century when paleontologists recognized the evolutionary significance of these muscular fin structures.
Sarcopterygians are your fishy ancestors - their fleshy fins contained the same bone pattern (one bone, two bones, many bones) that became your arms and legs! The coelacanth, thought extinct for 66 million years, was rediscovered in 1938 and is basically a living blueprint of your evolutionary past.
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