What is special about Tiktaalik fish?

Its extraordinary blend of gills, scales, fins and lungs, combined with a movable neck, sturdy ribcage and crocodile-like head, placed Tiktaalik half way between fish and the earliest four-legged land animals.

What features did the Tiktaalik have?

Tiktaalik retained both fish and tetrapod characteristics. Its fish characteristics include scales, fins, and gills, and its tetrapod characteristics include a neck, ribs capable of bearing weight, a flat head, dorsally positioned eyes, a fin skeleton, and ear notches (The University of Chicago, 2006).

What are the characteristics of Tiktaalik that make it a transitional form?

Paleontologists have uncovered new fossils from Tiktaalik roseae, which, while still a fish, is considered a transitional fossil that also has traits common to the first four-footed animals. This more complete picture of Tiktaalik suggests that the creature had strong, mobile hind fins.

What feature Tiktaalik shares with all four-legged animals?

Tiktaalik likely lived in shallow water close to the shore. It is a remarkable creature that owes its nickname “fishapod” to the anatomical features it shares with fish and four-legged animals, or tetrapods. Like a fish, it has scales, fins, and gills.

What is so important about Tiktaalik?

Tiktaalik lived about 12 million years before the first tetrapods (which are approximately 363 million years old). So, the existence of tetrapod features in a fish like Tiktaalik is significant because it marks the earliest appearance of these novel features in the fossil record.

What kind of fish is a Tiktaalik?

Tiktaalik (/tɪkˈtɑːlɪk/; Inuktitut ᑎᒃᑖᓕᒃ [tiktaːlik]) is a monospecific genus of extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned fish) from the Late Devonian Period, about 375 Mya (million years ago), having many features akin to those of tetrapods (four-legged animals).

What environment did the Tiktaalik live in?

Tiktaalik lived in marshy river settings resembling today’s Amazon. Up to 9 feet (2.7 meters) long, the lobed fish hunted like a freshwater crocodile in rivers and inlets, and had a surprisingly agile neck and primitive lungs.

What is the significance of Tiktaalik what characteristics are significant to tetrapod evolution?

What is Tiktaalik and what was the significance of its discovery?

Tiktaalik roseae, better known as the “fishapod,” is a 375 million year old fossil fish which was discovered in the Canadian Arctic in 2004. So, the existence of tetrapod features in a fish like Tiktaalik is significant because it marks the earliest appearance of these novel features in the fossil record.

What special adaptations did Tiktaalik?

Not only were the fins of Tiktaalik well adapted to living in the shallows, but also the distal part of the body to the head was able to flex slightly upward (Ahlberg and Clack, 2006). The fins of Tiktaalik allowed it to live in a variety of different substrates (Shubin et al., 2006).

What kind of body features does a Tiktaalik have?

And it has ribs like some of the earliest tetrapods which were used to support the body and aid in living and breathing on land. These features in Tiktaalik show that many of the body features we associate with the earliest tetrapods actually evolved in fish first.

Is the Tiktaalik pelvis a fish or tetrapod?

“Despite this, the girdles still show several fish-like characteristics. The Tiktaalik pelvis is a mix of fish and tetrapod characteristics, showing that the transition from water to land is not as straightforward as we previously thought, and that some tetrapod characteristics thought to be linked to the movement onto land first evolved in fishes.

Why was the discovery of Tiktaalik so important?

Its discovery sheds light on a pivotal point in the history of life on Earth: when the very first fish ventured out onto land. Tiktaalik looks like a cross between the primitive fish it lived amongst and the first four-legged animals (a group called “tetrapods” from tetra-, meaning four, and -pod, meaning foot.

Is the Tiktaalik a fish or an alligator?

It looks very much like a cross between a fish and an alligator. However, that’s not the case. It is a tetrapod that scientists believe will fill the gap in tetrapod evolution. It seems to be halfway between Eusthenopteron and Panderichthys, and Acanthostega.