New Fossil Links Four-legged Land Animals To Ancient Fish

National Science Foundation ^ | 01 April 2004 | Staff

[PatrickHenry]

Arlington, Va.—How land-living animals evolved from fish has long been a scientific puzzle. A key missing piece has been knowledge of how the fins of fish transformed into the arms and legs of our ancestors. In this week's issue of the journal Science, paleontologists Neil Shubin and Michael Coates from the University of Chicago and Ted Daeschler from the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, describe a remarkable fossil that bridges the gap between fish and amphibian and provides a glimpse of the structure and function changes from fin to limb.

The fossil, a 365-million-year-old arm bone, or humerus, shares features with primitive fish fins but also has characteristics of a true limb bone. Discovered near a highway roadside in north-central Penn., the bone is the earliest of its kind from any limbed animal.

"It has long been understood that the first four-legged creatures on land arose from the lobed-finned fishes in the Devonian Period," said Rich Lane, director of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) geology and paleontology program. "Through this work, we've learned that fish developed the ability to prop their bodies through modification of their fins, leading to the emergence of tetrapod limbs."

NSF, the independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, funded the research.

The bone's structure reveals an animal that had powerful forelimbs, with extensive areas for the attachment of muscles at the shoulder. "The size and extent of these muscles means that the humerus played a significant role in the support and movement of the animal," reported Shubin. "These muscles would have been important in propping the body up and pushing it off of the ground."

Interestingly, modern-day fish have smaller versions of the muscles. According to Coates, "When this humerus is compared to those of closely-related fish, it becomes clear that the ability to prop the body is more ancient than we previously thought. This means that many of the features we thought evolved to allow for life on land originally evolved in fish living in aquatic ecosystems."

The layered rock along the Clinton County, Penn., roadside were deposited by ancient stream systems that flowed during the Devonian Period, about 365 million years ago. Enclosed in the rocks is fossil evidence of an ecosystem teeming with plant and animal life. "We found a number of interesting fossils at the site," reported Daeschler, who uncovered the fossil in 1993. "But the significance of this specimen went unnoticed for several years because only a small portion of the bone was exposed and most of it lay encased in a brick-sized piece of red sandstone."

Not until three years ago, when Fred Mullison, the fossil preparator at the Academy of Natural Sciences, excavated the bone from the rock, did the importance of the new specimen become evident.

The work was also funded by a grant from the National Geographic Society.

[balrog666]

Virus from chemicals?

Yep. Life from non-life.

Leaving aside the fact that intelligent humans contrived to make this happen in a lab

No sh!t, sherlock. No points for you.

(swing and a miss for your point)

Nope. The point was "living from non-living". You lose, again.

Here ya go sparky: http://www.scienceagainstevolution.org/v6i10n.htm

They are misnamed. They should be called IdiotsAgainstScience. No points again.

Snowflakes are a lower energy form of water, not a higher energy form. They are moving toward equilibrium, not away from it.

Buzz, wrong. The point was "order from disorder", not energy levels. You lose again.

Ditto for crystals.

Buzz, wrong. The point was "order from disorder", not energy levels. You lose again.

Hurricanes? They are by definition low-pressure cells. They are chasing equilbrium as well.

Buzz, wrong. The point was "order from disorder", not energy levels or "chasing equilibrium". You lose again.

To say that Hurricanes 'form' is like saying the sun rises. Hurricanes are where heat and energy 'go'. They are not a net increase in energy. It is merely a perspective. Hurricanes lose heat and dissipate energy.

Buzz, non-sequitur. You lose again.

Gee, that makes you about 0 for 10. Double "F"

No soup for you!

[Oztrich Boy]

I understand the the Third Law of Thermodynamics is an underlying argument against the theory of Evolution.

Well that's certainly an argument that a creationist hasn't made before.

[AndrewC]

That's it???? One bone????

Not just any one bone, a humorist.

And it is a

[Freesofar]

What could possibly be more VAGUE and EXTREME than this "God" I keep hearing about?

"Do you claim God is not "extreme?" Because all I hear about is how he's all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, master of all life. Even more so than those guys in the Mountain Dew commercials. I mean, he's EXTREME.

And would you claim that "God" isn't vague? I mean, if you can give me an EXACT, NOT-AT-ALL VAGUE description of God that pins Him down exactly, I'd love to hear it."


I can't do it.
Only God can reveal himself to you.
Keep searching.

(By vague extreme I was referring to the leap from finding a multi-hinged fin on an extinct fish to concluding it was an arm developing on a "transitional species")
Now THAT takes REAL faith

[Dimensio]

I take it, then, that you are in agreement with Sir Fred Hoyle (who was an astronomer, and we all know that intimate knowledge of astronomy qualifies one to speak on matters of biology) that the first life forms were seeded to earth by aliens, and that evolution began from there?

[Dimensio]

I once heard someone claim that the "First Law of Thermal Dynamics" contradicted evolution, but never the "Third Law of Thermodynamics".

I suspect, however, that his "understanding" is simply wrong.

[VadeRetro]

So,... you concede ! By your own words, we must conclude there is a creator.

Torture that out for me, will you? I can use a good joke.

[xm177e2]

(By vague extreme I was referring to the leap from finding a multi-hinged fin on an extinct fish to concluding it was an arm developing on a "transitional species") Now THAT takes REAL faith

Vague? They are referring to three discrete data points (the three fossils). That is hardly vague.

Extreme? They were looking at the similarities between them and the slight differences. That is hardly extreme.

[Merdoug]

It all comes down to this: Creationists must rely on magic for their belief. You must believe that the world was created in 6 days, that all of the world's animals fit on an ark and lived peacefully together, that fossils from the "flood" all became layered in the rocks at the same levels all over the world, that unique animals, like those of Australia, just decided to all walk over there after the flood, that people turned into salt, seas were parted with a wave of the hand, water into wine, loaves and fishes from nothing, raising the dead,...etc,... It is no different than any other myths around the world. If it was in the Bible that the world started on the back of a giant turtle, Christianity would lap it up. Science ATTEMPTS to learn about the world by what we OBSERVE, not something out of the imagination of early peoples trying to make sense of a scary unknown world. Science is NOT perfect, but at least it is not living in a fantasy world. Who is happier? Definitely the Religious. They have a place to go after they die; all happy and skipping around the streets made of gold. I prefer to live with the hard reality of life and death and enjoy the time I have here while I can.

[vpintheak]

You are an ass.

[Trinity_Tx]

"Retrospective astonishment is a lousy argument for dismissing history anyway. Much of what happens all the time is in some sense improbable. Specific people do win the Lottery, sooner or later. Shuffle a card deck and deal it out. What you see, whether or not it looks like anything to you, is a one chance in 52 factorial outcome. (One in fifty-two times fifty-one times fifty times forty-nine ... times three times two times one.) Every time. "

...Reminds me of one of my favorite posts, in which someone so wittily asked,

"Is it just a coincidence that mud puddles are always just the right shape to fit the holes in the ground so they don't stick up into the air?"

;-)

[VadeRetro]

I'd happily credit whoever originally said that if I could only remember.

[Trinity_Tx]

Anything to avoid being kissed by some silent lurker who actually was light in his loafers, huh? <G>

[VadeRetro]

On the Internet, everyone is attractive. (If they want to be.)

[fish hawk]

name caller!!name caller!! A few women have called me ape but I don't think they meant it the way you do. By the way I dont have to deal with it. I don't believe it. You have to deal with it as that is YOUR destiny.

[BMCDA]

I think it was this guy ;)
But of course it's also possible he got it from someone else.

[Ichneumon]

Reminds me of how Dorothy Parker managed to use "horticulture" in a sentence.

Shhhh! Don't reveal my sources. (That was, actually, the inspiration for my retort.)

[Trinity_Tx]

Yup...

(Hope ya didn't think I was a light-in-loafers guy myself tho, lol. I was just referring to the facetious reply you got last time. ;-) )

[Ichneumon]

I can't do it. Only God can reveal himself to you.

God revealed to me that he doesn't exist, at least not in the way you picture him.

[VadeRetro]

(Hope ya didn't think I was a light-in-loafers guy myself tho, lol. I was just referring to the facetious reply you got last time. ;-) )

Didn't scare me a bit, but I took a shower just in case.