Our Fishy Ancestors Had Fins Made for Walking
One of the first creatures to live on land sported surprisingly strong hips and fins.
One of the first "fish" to walk on land some 375 million years ago made its way with surprisingly strong hips and fins, report paleontologists.
Unearthed in the Canadian Arctic in 2006, Tiktaalik roseae, a genus of early land-walking fish, made headlines with news of its discovery, which was funded by the National Geographic Society. The new report fleshes out how our ancient four-limbed ancestors first made the move from water to land. (See pictures: "Nine Fish With 'Hands' Found to Be New Species.")
"They're big—the hips of Tiktaalik look very robust," says University of Chicago paleontologist Neil Shubin, who led the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The find suggests that the pelvic
