Editor's Summary

26 June 2008

Evolution: The fish-to-tetrapod transition

The transition from water to land during the late Devonian (about 360 million years ago) is marked by the famous early tetra-pods Ichthyostega and Acanthostega, and the tetrapod-like fish Tiktaalik. But many other forms have been discovered, less well known through being more fragmentary. One of these is Ventastega curonica from the Late Devonian of Latvia. A new analysis of recently discovered material shows that Ventastega resembles a simple intermediate between Tiktaalik and Acanthostega, with the skull shape of an early tetrapod, but proportions more closely resembling a fish. But the picture is more complicated than that, due to the unexpected morphological diversity of early tetrapods, and the fact that their initial diversification was earlier than had been thought.

Article: Ventastega curonica and the origin of tetrapod morphology

Per E. Ahlberg, Jennifer A. Clack, Ervns Lukevis, Henning Blom & Ivars Zupi

doi:10.1038/nature06991

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,495K) | Supplementary information