Acanthostega (Kaiyodo Dino-Tales Series 2)

This is a very special guest. The Acanthostega has been heralded as one of the earliest amphibians known to man, the sole member of the Acanthostegidae family, a late Devonian tetrapod that raised doubts about the evolutionary process that mediates between fish and amphibians. This is one of the emblematic animals (the Tiktaalik and the Ichthyostega come to my mind) that make visible the tenous link.

Acanthostega gunnari (the only known species) still bears a great resemblance with fishes. Measuring around 1 meter, it still had gills (there’s even fossil evidence of them) and lungs. It had a tail fin composed by very thin fin rays. Its ‘labyrinthodont’ dentition (incluiding a set of fish-like fangs) is another primitive feature (so it would have been interesting if this Kaiyodo had its mouth open).

Decades ago scientists were pretty sure that fishes like the Eusthenopteron came out of the water and only then developed limbs. This and other animals proved that the limbs actually appeared before they could actually use them for crawling or walking, that is, they may have needed limbs for some other reason. Acanthostega’s limbs were too fish-like to support the body on land (it didn’t even have wrists). But that’s not all. Acanthostega had eight fingers on the front limbs and seven on the hind ones; this probably meant that the digit number was not a stable factor when limbs first appeared.

The Kaiyodo Acanthostega manages all this quite well. They didn’t get the digits completely right (it seems as if they tried to do them all, but in the end they only did 7 and 6 respectively) but that’s the only ‘fault’. The plastic is dark purple, almost black but at some points it’s translucid, and it’s covered by white and yellow dots, so the effect is pretty amazing. The caudal fin is extremely well done. The pattern of the skin is meticulous beyond measure.

This is a very attractive piece, but keep in mind that it only measures around 10 cm. It’s rarely seen on Ebay nowadays, but it’s worth every penny.

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