Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Palaeontology

Muddy tetrapod origins

Nature volume 463, pages 40–41 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

The tracks left by organisms are among the most difficult of fossils to interpret. But just such evidence puts debate about the origins of four-limbed vertebrates (which include ourselves) on a changed footing.

The term 'tetrapodomorph fishes' scarcely rolls off the tongue, but these are fossil animals that have a special place in the evolutionary history of vertebrates. It was through the stepwise transformation of paired fins in this lineage of lobe-finned fishes that paired limbs with digits arose, marking the advent of the four-limbed vertebrates, or tetrapods. This event occurred sometime during the Devonian period, between 416 million and 359 million years (Myr) ago. On page 43 of this issue, Niedźwiedzki et al.1 describe fossil tracks that were clearly made by a four-limbed animal possessing digits (see image on the cover of this issue). But they date to a time well before tetrapods were thought to have existed.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Simplified evolutionary tree of the living and fossil lobe-finned fishes and tetrapods.

References

  1. Niedźwiedzki, G., Szrek, P., Narkiewicz, K., Narkiewicz, M. & Ahlberg, P. E. Nature 463, 43–48 (2010).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Clack, J. A. Gaining Ground (Indiana Univ. Press, 2002).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Schubin, N. H., Daeschler, E. B. & Jenkins, F. A. Jr Nature 440, 764–771 (2006).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Whyte, M. A. Nature 438, 576 (2005).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Zhu, M. & Ahlberg, P. E. Nature 432, 94–97 (2004).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Lu, J. & Zhu, M. J. Vert. Paleont. 29, suppl. to no. 3, 134A (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Long, J. A. et al. Nature 444, 199–202 (2006).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philippe Janvier and Gaël Clément are at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (CNRS UMR7207), 8 rue Buffon, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France. janvier@mnhn.fr; gclement@mnhn.fr,

    Philippe Janvier & Gaël Clément

  2. gclement@mnhn.fr,

    Philippe Janvier & Gaël Clément

Authors
  1. Philippe Janvier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gaël Clément
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Janvier, P., Clément, G. Muddy tetrapod origins. Nature 463, 40–41 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/463040a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/463040a

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing