Skeptic Blog

shizumataka:

Tiktaalik is a genus of extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned “fish”) from the late Devonian period, with many features akin to those of tetrapods (four-legged animals). It is an example from several lines of ancient sarcopterygian “fish” developing adaptations to the oxygen-poor shallow-water habitats of its time, which led to the evolution of tetrapods. Well-preserved fossils were found in 2004 on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada.

Tiktaalik lived approximately 375 million years ago. Paleontologists suggest that it is representative of the transition between non-tetrapod vertebrates (“fish”) such as Panderichthys, known from fossils 380 million years old, and early tetrapods such as Acanthostega and Ichthyostega, known from fossils about 365 million years old. Its mixture of primitive “fish” and derived tetrapod characteristics led one of its discoverers, Neil Shubin, to characterize Tiktaalik as a “fishapod”.

Source: Wikipedia