American paleontologists have identified a 375-million-year-old fossil species that sheds new light on how aquatic creatures first moved onto land. Unearthed from river sediments on Ellesmere Island in Canada's Nunavut territory, roughly 1,000 kilometers from the North Pole, the creature has been named Tiktaalik roseae, a word meaning large shallow-water fish in the Inuktituk language, chosen by the Nunavut Elders Council.
The animal combined fish traits, including primitive jaws, fins, and bony scales, with features typical of four-limbed land animals, among them a neck and ribs. Most notably, its pectoral fins contained bones corresponding to the upper arm, forearm, and early hand structures, suggesting it could bear its own weight on the ground.
Researchers believe Tiktaalik lived in warm, shallow delta streams, an environment that may have pushed it to venture onto land for food or refuge. At the time, the region sat near the equator as part of a larger continent with a subtropical climate.
The find, published in the journal Nature, fills a roughly 20-million-year gap in the fossil record between the fish Panderichthys, dated to around 385 million years ago, and the earliest confirmed four-limbed animals, dated to around 365 million years ago. Co-author Farish Jenkins of Harvard called it "a critical early phase in the evolution of all limbed animals."
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in April 2006, in its own words.