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The genetic potential to create fingers and toes apparently existed ages before animals even crawled onto land, dating back to the distant common ancestors of sharks and humans, research now reveals. ADVERTISEMENT The research focused on a group of genes that control how and where body parts develop in animals, including people. Scientists investigated the activity of these "Hox genes" in embryos of the spotted catshark. Unexpectedly, they discovered that a spurt of genetic activity that helps digits such as fingers and toes develop in limbed animals was seen in shark embryos as well. "Genetic processes were not simple in...

A 380 million-year-old fossil found in Australia has filled a gap in the understanding of how fish evolved into the first land animals. John Long, lead researcher at Museum Victoria, said the perfectly preserved skeleton has revealed that fish developed features characteristic of land animals much earlier than once thought. Long said: "We've got a fish from the Devonian period about 380 million years ago and preserved in three-dimensional stunning perfection. "It has revealed a whole suite of characters that link it to the higher land animals or tetrapods, so it's filling in a blank in evolution we didn't know...