Osteolepidida are a group of prehistoric lobe-finned fishes which appears first time during the Devonian period. The order contains five families: Canowindridae, Elpistostegidae, Megalichthyidae, Osteolepidae and Tristichopteridae. The superorder is generally considered to be paraphyletic because the characters that define it are mainly attributes of stem tetrapodomorphs.Below is a cladogram showing the paraphyly of Osteolepiformes compiled and modified from Ahlberg and Johanson (1998).