Ancient fossils shed light on anatomical changes accompanying evolution of first land vertebrates
Monday, July 6, 2009 - 15:42
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Cartoon depictions of the first animals to emerge from the ocean and walk on land often show a simple fish with feet, venturing from water to land. But according to Jennifer Clack, a paleontologist at the University of Cambridge who has studied the fossils of these extinct creatures for more than two decades, the earliest land vertebrates -- also known as tetrapods -- were more diverse than we could possibly imagine.