Kenichthys

Kenichthys Temporal range: Early Devonian
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sarcopterygii
Clade:	Rhipidistia
Clade:	Tetrapodomorpha
Genus:	†Kenichthys Chang and Zhu 1993
Type species
†Kenichthys campbelli Chang and Zhu 1993

Kenichthys is a genus of sarcopterygian fish from the Devonian period, and a member of the clade tetrapodomorpha. The only known species of the genus is Kenichthys campbelli (named for the Australian palaeontologist K.S.W. Campbell), the first remains of which were found in China in 1993. The genus is important to the study of the evolution of tetrapods due to the unique nature of its nostrils, which provide vital evidence regarding the evolutionary transition of fish-like nostrils to the vertebrate choanae.

Kenichthys was a small tetrapodomorph, with a skull about 2 cm long. While only areas of the front of the body are known, it seems likely that Kenichthys would have been similar in general body form other basal sarcopterygians, with two dorsal fins, paired pectoral and pelvic fins and an anal fin.

An important way in which Kenichthys differed from other tetropodomorphs however is in the positioning of its posterior nostril. Whilst in other tetropodomorphs this nostril is positioned in the roof of the mouth (the palate), in Kenichthys it is found at the jaw margin, between the premaxilla and maxilla.

The original fossil material of Kenichthys was first described in 1993, and consists of various parts of the skull roof, lower jaw and pectoral girdle. They were found in Southwestern China, in the Chuandong formation in Yunnan province, and are now housed in the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing. The fossils date from the early Devonian, specifically from the Emsian period, about 395 million years ago.

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