[3dognight]

Scientists have long known that fish evolved into the first creatures on land with four legs and backbones more than 365 million years ago, but they've had precious little fossil evidence to document how it happened.

Question, how did they know it if they had little evidence? Sounds more like speculation to me if you don't have the evidence.

[68skylark]

Question, how did they know it if they had little evidence?

The article says they had little fossile evidence of the link to fish and land animals. I think they probably had other kinds of evidence, like genetics.

[Sofa King]

Scientists have long known that fish evolved into the first creatures on land with four legs and backbones more than 365 million years ago, but they've had precious little fossil evidence to document how it happened.

They could deduce and extrapolate from other fossils that it must have happened, but with a gap in the fossil record right where it happened there was only so much they could determine about it. Now that the fossil has shown up, just as predicted, we can learn more about the specifics of how it. The Scientific Process FTW!