The Skate Walking Fish Can Give Scientists Precious Information On Evolution

The Skate Walking Fish Can Give Scientists Precious Information On Evolution
SHARE

YouTube video

Scientists have studied fish capable of walking on the ground and breathing the air, and so they have learned very interesting things about the evolution of man on Earth. Skate walking fish is one of them and scientists found out that it has something in common with us.

Primitive land animals had very tiny legs

The first forms of life are believed to have developed in water but more then 400 million years ago, some fish species moved out from the water to the land, slowly turning into tetrapods – four-legged animals adapted for the new conditions.

Over time, it seems that they have evolved in today’s amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Scientists believe that, at the beginning, the species which chose the land over water developed small limbs to move around. This can still be observed in skates fish.

Researchers are sure that studying the skate walking fish can bring some new data on how did the life evolved on our planet.

The walking fish and its similarities with humans

The scientists started to study the walking fish and they observed that both skates and mammals present the same genes that tell the body how to move.

Researchers believe that the genetic marks for walking have been developed by some marine animals even before moving to the land and they hope to find the needed pieces of the puzzle to help them elaborate new theories regarding “a common ancestor”.

An older study has already shown how fish can adapt to land

The researchers included several Nile Bichir fish in an experiment of growing them exclusively on the earth. They tracked the way the fish evolved on land compared to those which grew up in the water.

Onshore, Nile Bichir subjects have improved their ability to walk, and their fins started to grow closer to the body. Their heads have grown more and the bones have developed differently in order to sustain their weight while walking.

Both these studies on walking fish show that the life has really evolved from water, and even the humans’ ancestor was a marine creature, at the beginning.


SHARE

Post Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.