Stegocephalia is a name used for four-limbed stem-tetrapods, and their amphibian-grade descendants, and in phylogenetic nomenclature for all tetrapods. The term was coined in 1868 by American palaentologist Edward Drinker Cope and comes from Greek στεγοκεφαλια - "roofed head", and refer to the copious amounts of dermal armour some of the larger primitive forms evidently had. Canadian paleontologist Michel Laurin gave the group its first formal phylogenetic definition, roughly including all vertebrates with toes rather than fins.

Stegocephalia is a name used for four-limbed stem-tetrapods, and their amphibian-grade descendants, and in phylogenetic nomenclature for all tetrapods. The term was coined in 1868 by American palaentologist Edward Drinker Cope and comes from Greek στεγοκεφαλια - "roofed head", and refer to the copious amounts of dermal armour some of the larger primitive forms evidently had. Canadian paleontologist Michel Laurin gave the group its first formal phylogenetic definition, roughly including all vertebrates with toes rather than fins.