Spine of early crawling fish Tiktaalik was becoming more like a land animal’s

Scans show that the spine and ribs of Tiktaalik, one of the first land-crawling fish, resembled features of early land animals rather than fish.

To Michael Le Paige

CT scans of Tiktaalik fossils, one of the first land-crawling fish, reveal more body features that are intermediate between fish and land animals. In particular, it indicates that the fins were attached to the spine. This is characteristic of the limbs of terrestrial vertebrates, but not of fish fins.

“This is an unexpected result, given how we have reconstructed this animal in the past,” said Thomas Stuart of Pennsylvania State University.

Neil…