The earliest tetrapods (vertebrates with limbs rather than paired fins) date from the Late Devonian Period (370–354 million years ago)^{1, 2} — nine genera have been described, all of which are from the Euramerican supercontinent that comprises Europe, north America and Greenland, apart from a single Gondwanan genus, Metaxygnathus, from Australia^{3, 4, 5}. Here we report the discovery of the first Devonian tetrapod from Asia, a finding that substantially extends the geographical range of these animals and raises new questions about their dispersal. These forms seem to have achieved worldwide distribution and great taxonomic diversity within a relatively short time.

1. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 643, Beijing 100044, China
2. Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK

Correspondence to: Min Zhu¹ e-mail: Email: zhumin@ivpp.ac.cn