Thanks to Carl Zimmer for pointing out a new paper by Jenny Clack in Evolution: Education and Outreach: “The Fish-Tetrapod Transition: New Fossils and Interpretations.” This is a good paper for the non-scientist who wants to know more about the documentation of this important transition. In WEIT I wrote mostly about the Tiktaalik roseae transitional form, largely because a lot of work on that fossil was done by my colleague Neil Shubin. I was criticized by some for not mentioning the other important fossils in this sequence, and Clack’s article fills this gap very well. Highly recommended.
Good new paper on the fish-tetrapod transition
March 19, 2009 • 2:17 pm
A good read…except that right at the start she defines tetrapods as *animals* that have legs, or whose ancestors had them.
I would be very thankful if someone could send me paper “The Fish-Tetrapod Transition: New Fossils and Interpretations.”. Despite the fact that I am student, I don`t have permision to those abstracts. If it is possible, please send it to valdemarss@inbox.lv
I recently finished reading Neil Shubin’s “Your Inner Fish” and was very impressed with it. I was amazed to see how different parts of the skelaton from fishes were re-purposed into something that had a completely different function in mammals. It will be interesting to see more detail on the transition between fish and tetrapod.
I kind of feel sad that they’ve found so many “new guys” that good old Hynerpeton has fallen off the charts. My parents live right down the road from Hyner Mountain in Pennsylvania near where they found him (or her).