The mystery of the fish’s saga on how it moved from water to land millions of years ago had always interested biologists, leaving them pondering on their evolutionary process. Various researches made on it had suggested that an abrupt genetic change had transformed the fish to acquire land-friendly limbs.
Ah! But, scientists have recently zeroed in what is called the “missing link” between fins and limbs! Yes, they have discovered a fossil, which sheds light on the mystery has questioned the fish’s evolutionary novelty.
A US expert team suggested that the transition was far more gradual and fit is not an event of evolutionary novelty.
Interestingly, the fossilized remains of a crocodile-like creature - named Tiktaalik roseae - was found to have fins that were equipped for a life in the water as well as land.
The animal that lived about 380 million years ago, did not just bring land-dwelling animals closer to their water-living counterparts.
The new finding also contradicts the previous genetic evidences suggesting an abrupt transition from fins to limbs.
