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Nature 390, 21-22 (6 November 1997) | doi:10.1038/36215

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Palaeontology:  Fins made for walking

Oleg A. Lebedev1

One of the most enigmatic issues in vertebrate evolution is the fish-tetrapod transition — that period of evolutionary history when, some 365 million years ago, four-legged land animals first appeared in the fossil record. The transition was accompanied by radical innovation in limb structure such as the appearance of digits, and later (although we don't know exactly when) adaptations to habitual air breathing.

  1. Oleg A. Lebedev is in the Palaeontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 123 Profsoyuznaya St, Moscow 117647, Russia.
    e-mail: Email: olebed@paleo.msk.su