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Oldest Known Tetrapod Found

qazsedcft writes "The oldest footprints ever made by four-legged creatures have been discovered by scientists, forcing them to reconsider a critical period in evolution: the point at which fish crawled out of the water onto land to evolve into reptiles, mammals and eventually humans. The 'hand' and 'foot' prints are 18m years older than the earliest, previously confirmed fossil remains of tetrapods or four-legged vertebrates and were left by lizard-like creatures up to 2.5 meters long. The discovery, reported in tomorrow's issue of the journal Nature, was made in a former quarry in the Holy Cross Mountains in south-eastern Poland. The fossil footprints can be reliably dated to the early Middle Devonian period, around 395 million years ago."

2 comments

  1. One's gotta ask... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where did they find your mother? I've been looking for her to pay me the money she owes me...

  2. More research to be done. by dumuzi · · Score: 1

    There is no word yet on when humans returned to the muck and devolved into the slithering parasites that became known as lawyers.