Fossil skull sheds light on evolution from fish to four-legged creatures


	Fossil skull sheds light on evolution from fish to four-legged creatures

arifsali

6-25-2008 3:52 PM

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fish, discovery

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/de3a1ef7-906c-42a6-b88f-346113fa7c2a/10FF14AC-7094-40A4-9B22-361980A2FF2C/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-06-25-fish-evolution-link_N.htm" href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-06-25-fish-evolution-link_N.htm" style="font-size: 11px;">www.usatoday.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-06-25-fish-evolution-link_N.htm">Scientists unearthed a skull of the most primitive four-legged creature in Earth's history, which should help them better understand the evolution of fish to advanced animals that walk on land.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-06-25-fish-evolution-link_N.htm">The 365 million-year-old fossil skull, shoulders and part of the pelvis of the water-dweller, <I>Ventastega curonica</I>, were found in Latvia,</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-06-25-fish-evolution-link_N.htm"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.usatoday.com/img/0F05C440-2D89-4AA1-9FA3-D19A571F93CE" alt="An artist's rendering shows a Ventastega. Scientists have found the fossil skull of the most primitive four-legged critter in Earth's history, a key point in the evolution from fish to animals that eventually walked on on land. At lower left are two Bothriolepis. " /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-06-25-fish-evolution-link_N.htm">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.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-06-25-fish-evolution-link_N.htm"><P class="inside-copy">While an earlier discovery found a slightly older animal that was more fish than tetrapod, <I>Ventastega</I> 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.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/10FF14AC-7094-40A4-9B22-361980A2FF2C/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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