[2] Only one species is known that belongs in the genus, Ventastega curonica, which was described in 1996 after fossils were discovered in 1933 and mistakenly associated with a fish called Polyplocodus wenjukovi.

[2] Based on the morphology of both cranial and post-cranial elements discovered (see below), Ventastega is more primitive than other Devonian tetrapodomorphs including Acanthostega and Ichthyostega,[3][2] and helps further understanding of the fish-tetrapod transition.

[2] Gross attributed all remains to an osteolepiform fish named Polyplocodus wenjukov, before later in 1944 reattributing some of the fragments to a species called Panderichthys bystrowi when a piece of a lower jaw was collected from the same locality.

[2] In the follow years, several more fragments of Ventastega curonica remains have been discovered at both the Ketleri and Pavāri localities, with all specimens residing at the Natural History Museum of Latvia.

[3] The Ventastega holotype (LDM 81/521) is a right lower jaw ramus from Pavāri, and was described by Per Erik Ahlberg, Ervīns Lukševičs, and Oleg Lebedev.

[2] Similar to some tetrapods such as Acanthostega and Tulerpeton, the dentary's lateral surface is ornamented on the dorsal side with a smooth section only on the ventral margin.

[2] A primitive characteristic on Ventastega, shared only with fish and Ichthyostega, is the presence of a fully enclosed mandibular sensory canal which opens to the external world through only a single row of pores.

[3] Shared features between the two taxa were the shape of the prootic region and its location to the ventral cranial fissure and fenestra vestibuli, along with the basipterygoid processes and laterally open post-temporal fossae.

[6] Due to anoxic conditions in aquatic ecosystems during the Famennian (see Paleoenvironment below), early tetrapods such as Ventastega would have had a significant fitness advantage with the ability to exploit terrestrial environments.

[8] Plants were undergoing rapid diversification during the middle and late Devonian, and beginning to occupy vast tracts of land instead of being restricted to the coastal margins, which created new terrestrial habitats, including the first forests.

[8] Ventastega and other early tetrapods would have been able to gulp air, giving them a significant fitness advantage by allowing them to explore the banks of the anoxic rivers and lakes where they were found.

[11] However, the sedimentology of the Ketleri Formation, including sands interbedded with siltstones and clays, indicates that Ventastega was deposited in a low-tidal, near-shore environment in saline water.

[12] Sand particles filled in the erosional channel, and then were followed by slow, calm intertidal streams depositing poorly sorted silts and clays.