A few million years after the first amphibian-like animals walked on land, one of their descendants went back to live in the water
Alex Boersma
Some fish grew legs and developed the ability to stand nearly 400 million years ago, starting the evolutionary lineage of four-legged animals called tetrapods. But the smooth limb bones of the newly describedfossil couldn’t have supported the muscles needed for standing, meaning the “fishapod” had evolved back into a swimming, full-time water dweller, sayswere already taking those steps [out of water], but this was a creature that said, ‘I’m not doing that, I like the water better!’” he says.
had evolved to become an even more efficient swimmer in open waters, with fins somewhat like ping-pong paddles. “What’s interesting about it is that it went back and became super specialised,” says Shubin.
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