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The evolution of tetrapods began about 400 million years ago in the Devonian Period with the earliest tetrapods evolved from lobe-finned fishes. [1] Tetrapods (under the apomorphy-based definition used on this page) are categorized as animals in the biological superclass Tetrapoda, which includes all living and extinct amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
The first tetrapods appeared in the fossil record over a period, the beginning and end of which are marked with extinction events. This lasted until the end of the Devonian 359 mya. The ancestors of all tetrapods began adapting to walking on land, their strong pectoral and pelvic fins gradually evolved into legs (see Tiktaalik ). [ 38 ]
Native plants and animals in Florida are threatened by the spread of invasive species. [2] Florida is a major biodiversity hotspot in North America and the hospitable sub-tropical climate has also become a hotspot for invasive plants and animals due to anthropogenic introduction. [3] [4]
There is no evidence that it did so, only that it may have been anatomically capable of doing so. [58] [59] The publication in 2018 of Tutusius umlambo and Umzantsia amazana from high latitude Gondwana setting indicate that the tetrapods enjoyed a global distribution by the end of the Devonian and even extend into the high latitudes. [60]
Olsen (1987) estimated that 42% of all terrestrial tetrapods became extinct at the end of the Triassic, based on his studies of faunal changes in the Newark Supergroup of eastern North America. [15] More modern studies have debated whether the turnover in Triassic tetrapods was abrupt at the end of the Triassic, or instead more gradual. [3]
Though stem-tetrapods originated in the preceding Devonian, it was in the earliest Carboniferous that the first crown tetrapods appeared, with full scaleless skin and five digits. During this time, amphibians (including many extinct groups unrelated to modern forms, referred to as "basal tetrapods") were the predominant tetrapods, and included ...
Florida once had a large number of species that formerly occupied the state in prehistoric and historic times, but became locally extinct or extirpated; such as the Florida short-faced bear, Florida black wolf, Dire wolf, Dexteria floridana, Florida bog lemming, Long-nosed peccary, Caribbean monk seal, Carolina parakeet, Great auk, Passenger ...
An informal term with a broader meaning is stem tetrapod, a stem group consisting of all species more closely related to modern tetrapods than to lungfish, but excluding the crown group. This group includes both traditional "labyrinthodonts" as well as more basal tetrapodomorph fish, though its total content is a matter of some uncertainty, as ...