Lobe-finned fish and the emergence of vertebrates on land

Lobe-finned fish is a class of bony fish that appeared in the Early Devonian and which now include the living coelacanth and lungfish. Most of them have fleshy fins with a developed skeleton. Paired fins with powerful muscles enabled lobe-finned fish in the Late Devonian not only to crawl along the bottom, but also to crawl from one reservoir to another. This and other pre-adaptations to live on land enabled one of the lobe-finned fish, the tetrapodomorphs, to evolve into the first four-legged vertebrates or tetrapods.

The exhibition presents the fossil remains of lobe-finned fish, reflecting the stages of the evolutionary transition to life on land.

Kamis