An artist’s
rendition of an ancient lungfish squirming up onto land. Image courtesy of Jakub Zalewski
Joel Kontinen
Evolution proposes that about 400 million years ago,
vertebrates were confined to the sea. Fish did not evolve limbs adapted for
walking on land.
A new study published in Scientific Reports has report in which the earliest version of
fossil evidence from the sea to land by 10 million years
in advance.
If this is true, the earliest migration will be out of the
water on land by at least 10 million years.
The trace fossils closely resemble trails left by modern
lungfish as they drag themselves across exposed shores, says Piotr Szrek, a
paleontologist at the Polish Geological Institute and lead author of the study.
Possible lungfish tracks could push back animal migration
onto land by 10 million years.
The new fossils were unearthed during excavations in 2021 in
the Holy Cross Mountains in Poland, about 190 kilometers south of Warsaw.
Source:
Taylor Mitchell Brown 2025 Fossilized fish trails reveal earliest steps out of water | Science | AAAS 15 August
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