During the Devonian Period vertebrate life underwent a fundamental change, moving gradually from the water to the land. The transformation of fish into tetrapods (animals with four limbs) ranks alongside the development of the backbone and the amniote egg as a key moment in animal evolution.
Subcategories 3
Related categories 1
Sites 13
Loading new listings for you to review...
- Basal Tetrapod and Amphibian Trees A list of cladograms tested for their correspondence with stratigraphic data, with references.
- Evolution of Limbs A description of the possible effects of the Hox gene family on vertebrate evolution.
- Dendrerpeton acadianum An early temnospondyl found in petrified tree stumps from Joggins, Nova Scotia.
- Ichthyostega A detailed description of the first Devonian tetrapod to be discovered.
- Acanthostega gunnari A detailed analysis of this early tetrapod by Jennifer Clack, the paleontologist who discovered and described it.
- Terrestrial Vertebrates A description of the tetrapods and other digit bearing vertebrates.
- Tiktaalik roseae: A Missing Link? The finding of a fossil of this species seems to close the gap between the fish Panderichthys and the tetrapod Acanthostega. This article summarises the scientific report that appeared in the journal, Nature.
- Acanthostega Information from Wikipedia on this extinct tetrapod genus, one of the first vertebrate animals to have recognizable limbs.
- Fish to Amphibian This article discusses the evidence for the transition of certain fish into tetrapods and argues that things are not as clear-cut as they seem.
- Discovery of a Transitional in Romer's Gap Article on the discovery in 2002 of a tetrapod fossil, Pederpes finneyae, which seems to fill the gap between the very earliest and later tetrapods.
- Creatures from the Black Lagoon Information from the BBC on the discovery of a fossil of Eucritta melanolimnetes in a limestone wall in Scotland and the ensuing discoveries in the Black Lagoon from which the stone had come.
- Eucritta melanolimnetes Description of this early tetrapod, photograph of its fossil remains, and a reconstruction of its skeleton provided by the Tree of Life Web Project.
- Fossil Helps Document Shift from Sea to Land New fossils of an ancient, four-limbed creature, Ventastega curonica, help fill in the blanks of the evolutionary transition between fish and the first land-adapted vertebrates.