British media: The study found that fish had fingers 380 million years ago

According to British media, an ancient fish fossil with a "finger" rewrites the history of human origin.

According to the British "Times" website reported on March 18, this ancient fish fossil revealed for the first time that a ferocious carnivorous fish that lived in shallow tropical waters about 380 million years ago had a structure similar to human fingers and wrists on its pectoral fins.

The researchers who gave the finding called it the "missing evolutionary link," which explains how quadrupeds came to land from the ocean.

John Lang, a professor of paleontology at Flinders University in Australia, said: "This discovery pushes the finger origins of vertebrates forward to fish and tells us that the pattern of vertebrate long fingers first appeared in evolution, just before fish left the water. ”

He also said that as a species, flexibility is a key to our success. "Think of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel—the hand of man touching the hand of God," he said. That's where it came from. ”

The fossil, unearthed in Quebec, Canada, is about 1.6 meters long and contains for the first time the intact pectoral fin of a late Devonian salamander fish. At that time, there were only plants and invertebrates including scorpions and millipedes on land.

The fish was the top predator of its time, with a crocodile-like jaw. It also had two holes in the top of its head, apparently for breathing. Through computed tomography, the researchers were able to find a series of bones in the fins. These include one humerus (equivalent to a human arm), one radius and ulna (forearm), several rows of wrist bones (wrists), and two finger-distributed phalanges (fingers).

Professor Lang said the discovery revealed "extraordinary new information about the evolution of the hands of vertebrates".

"This is the first time we've found fingers in the fins of a known fish," he said. The jointly connected fingers in the fins resemble the finger bones on the hands of most animals. ”

The evolution of fish into tetrapods—the tetrapods to which humans belong—is one of the most important events in the history of life.

The vertebrates were then able to leave the water.

Co-author Richard Clautil of the University of Quebec said that over the past 10 years, fossils have enhanced awareness of the transformations in body structure associated with animals' ability to breathe, hear and feed on land.

The presence of fingers, he said, allows the fish to support its weight in shallow water or stay on land for a short time.

"The increase in the number of small bones in the fins allows it to disperse weight through the fins," he said. Other features revealed by the study involve the upper arm bone or humerus structure, which also reveals that it has the same characteristics as early amphibians. ”

"This fish is not necessarily our ancestors, but it is closest to a true 'transitional fossil' – i.e. somewhere between fish and quadrupeds," he said. (Compiler/Xuelei Yang)