Directory of Early Tetrapods Resources

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During the Devonian Period vertebrate life underwent a fundamental change, moving gradually from the water to the land. The transformation of fish into tetrapods (animals with four limbs) ranks alongside the development of the backbone and the amniote egg as a key moment in animal evolution.

Subcategories

• Paleontologists
• The Devonian Period
• The Mississippian Period

Resources in This Category

• Acanthostega

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acanthostega
  Information from Wikipedia on this extinct tetrapod genus, one of the first vertebrate animals to have recognizable limbs.

• Acanthostega gunnari

  http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Acanthostega&contgroup=Terrestrial_Vertebrates
  A detailed analysis of this early tetrapod by Jennifer Clack, the paleontologist who discovered and described it.

• Basal Tetrapod and Amphibian Trees

  http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/cladestrat/amphibians.html
  A list of cladograms tested for their correspondence with stratigraphic data, with references.

• Creatures from the Black Lagoon

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/highlights/001219_blacklagoon.shtml
  Information from the BBC on the discovery of a fossil of Eucritta melanolimnetes in a limestone wall in Scotland and the ensuing discoveries in the Black Lagoon from which the stone had come.

• Dendrerpeton acadianum

  http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/carboniferous/joggins.html
  An early temnospondyl found in petrified tree stumps from Joggins, Nova Scotia.

• Discovery of a Transitional in Romer's Gap

  http://www.evolutionpages.com/pederpes%20finneyae.htm
  Article on the discovery in 2002 of a tetrapod fossil, Pederpes finneyae, which seems to fill the gap between the very earliest and later tetrapods.

• Eucritta melanolimnetes

  http://tolweb.org/Eucritta_melanolimnetes
  Description of this early tetrapod, photograph of its fossil remains, and a reconstruction of its skeleton provided by the Tree of Life Web Project.

• Evolution of Limbs

  http://www.gate.net/~rwms/EvoLimb.html
  A description of the possible effects of the Hox gene family on vertebrate evolution.

• Fish to Amphibian

  http://www.earthhistory.org.uk/transitional-fossils/fish-to-amphibian/
  This article discusses the evidence for the transition of certain fish into tetrapods and argues that things are not as clear-cut as they seem.

• Fossil Helps Document Shift from Sea to Land

  http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/33623/title/Fossil_helps_document_shift_from_sea_to_land
  New fossils of an ancient, four-limbed creature, Ventastega curonica, help fill in the blanks of the evolutionary transition between fish and the first land-adapted vertebrates.

• Ichthyostega

  http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Ichthyostega&contgroup=Terrestrial_vertebrates
  A detailed description of the first Devonian tetrapod to be discovered.

• Terrestrial Vertebrates

  http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Terrestrial_Vertebrates&contgroup=Sarcopterygii
  A description of the tetrapods and other digit bearing vertebrates.

• Tiktaalik roseae: A Missing Link?

  http://www.earthhistory.org.uk/technical-issues/tiktaalik-roseae/
  The finding of a fossil of this species seems to close the gap between the fish Panderichthys and the tetrapod Acanthostega. This article summarises the scientific report that appeared in the journal, Nature.

Related Categories

• Home > Science > Biology > Zoology > Chordates > Herpetology

 

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