Word: ichthyostega
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...Wakefield's discovery is that it may help solve a major evolutionary riddle: How did the webbed feet of the amphibians evolve from the paddle-shaped fins of their fish ancestors? Possibly his creature may be kin to a little (3-ft.-long) lizard-like amphibian called Ichthyostega, whose remains have been found in Greenland. The outward-pointing feet of Wakefield's find "demonstrate," he says, "a stage intermediate between the backward paddle of the ancestral fish and the forward-pointing foot of a four-limbed animal." To help settle that old scientific question, Wakefield is hopeful...
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