This fish went out on a limb

Most fossils yet discovered of that period were poorly preserved and didn?t establish the transition of animals from land to water.

What makes the discovery of the fossil Tiktaalikroseae (a link between water and land species) exciting is that it is proof of what evolutionary scientists could only ‘predict’ till date. For the scientists, who trawled the icy Arctic desert, the find is an ‘incredible discovery’ because it fits in perfectly in the ‘tree of life’. Evolutionary biologists, overwhelmed by the discovery, have turned poetic, what with the Inuit-named Tiktaalik being hailed as ‘a moment captured’. And for them, this ‘moment’ throws up another challenge for, ‘When you discover a missing link, you create two new missing links’.

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The absence of any fossil that had the basic structure of limbed animals had provided space for Intelligent Design pseudo-scientists to try and establish the presence of, well, an intelligent designer. Most fossils yet discovered of that period were poorly preserved and didn’t establish the transition of animals from land to water. With the Tiktaalik’s discovery, another link in evolution’s story falls into place, to the ID tribe’s chagrin. The 380- million-year-old fish was caught between two worlds -- land and water -- and has fins that can be flexed, wrists, and a mobile neck. With ribs like a land animal, it was a sharp-toothed predator.

This July, another expedition is slated to try to find other parts of this fossil. The expeditions have been battles against nature, what with the extreme temperature. One storm kept the scientists in their tents for ten days and they all carried guns to ward off polar bears. Now they’re going to go back to hunt some more. Imagine all that work to find fish fingers.