Anyways, scientists have recently discovered one of those pesky intermediate life forms that evolution produces.
The 365 million-year-old fossil skull, shoulders and part of the pelvis of
the water-dweller, Ventastega curonica, were found in Latvia, researchers report
in a study published in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature. Even though
Ventastega is likely an evolutionary dead-end, the finding sheds new details on
the evolutionary transition from fish to tetrapods. Tetrapods are animals with
four limbs and include such descendants as amphibians, birds and mammals.
While an earlier discovery found a slightly older animal that was more fish
than tetrapod, Ventastega is more tetrapod than fish. The fierce-looking
creature probably swam through shallow brackish waters, measured about three or
four feet long and ate other fish. It likely had stubby limbs with an unknown
number of digits, scientists said.
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