Discovery of TIKTAALIK:
COULD IT REALLY BE THE MISSING LINK?
g Expert
As we all know, the question as to how ocean creatures evolved into land creatures in the early steps of evolution has been an unanswered question since the dawn of time. The transition between ocean organisms and land organisms still baffles many scientists and no one is sure of how this transition occurred. The first creatures to leave the water are given the name Tetrapod in reference to "four limbs." These tetrapods are supposed to be the ancestors of all living creatures on land, starting from birds and amphibians to mammals and reptiles. Despite the vast efforts, there was never clear evidence that proved when a certain fish started to develop a bony skeleton in order to be able to live on land and evolve from that stage. However, the recent discovery, Tiktaalik has given us a new point of view as to how things possibly evolved 350 to 400 million years ago. Tiktaalik was the first fossil to have both features of fish and to have digits like mammals or elbows and shoulders. This is why it is given the name "the missing link." "It is about as transitional as a fossil can be." This new discovery has raised many questions and doubts on how or what creatures living on land have evolved from and how the transition from water to land could have been complete.
Farida Fouad
ScienCovery/December, 2013
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