Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
As aquatic tetrapods began their transition to land, several skeletal changes are thought to have occurred to allow for movement and respiration on land. Some adaptations required to adjust to non-aquatic life include the movement and use of alternating limbs, the use of pelvic appendages as sturdy propulsors, and the use of a solid surface at ...
Several groups of tetrapods have undergone secondary aquatic adaptation, an evolutionary transition from being purely terrestrial to living at least part of the time in water. These animals are called "secondarily aquatic" because although their ancestors lived on land for hundreds of millions of years, they all originally descended from ...
Thus, those very few tetrapod fossils found in this "gap" are all the more prized by palaeontologists because they document these significant changes and clarify their history. The transition from an aquatic, lobe-finned fish to an air-breathing amphibian was a significant and fundamental one in the evolutionary history of the vertebrates .
The vertebrate species that were important to the initial water to land transition can be sorted into five phases: sarcopterygians, prototetrapods, aquatic stem tetrapods (or "fishapods"), amphibian true tetrapods, and amniote tetrapods. Many morphological changes occurred throughout this transition.
This change from a body plan for breathing and navigating in gravity-neutral water to a body plan with mechanisms enabling the animal to breath in air without dehydrating and move on land is one of the most profound evolutionary changes known. [18] [19] Tetrapods can be divided into four classes: amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
Nine tetrapod trackways from three sites have been reported from the Valentia Slate Formation of Valentia Island, Ireland. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The Valentia Slate Formation is composed mostly of purple coloured fine-grained sandstones and siltstones interpreted to represent a fluvial setting.
Monica McGarrity, Texas Parks and Wildlife’s senior scientist for aquatic and invasive species, explained in a statement after the 2022 discoveries that “release of aquarium life” is “a ...
Modern amphibians, which evolved from earlier groups, are generally semiaquatic; the first stages of their lives are as waterborne eggs and fish-like larvae known as tadpoles, and later undergo metamorphosis to grow limbs and become partly terrestrial and partly aquatic. However, most tetrapod species today are amniotes, most of which are ...