Word: landings
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What really fascinates scientists about the fishapod is that it fits so neatly into one of the most exciting chapters in the history of life--when creatures that swam in seas and rivers gave rise to things that walked, ran and crept on land. The fishapod appears to be a crucial link in the long chain that over time led to amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, birds and mammals. Indeed, Tiktaalik roseae, the official name bestowed on the fishapod (in the language of the local Inuit, tiktaalik means "large fish in stream"), falls anatomically between the lobe-finned fish Panderichthys, found...
...fish were giving rise to the four-legged animals known as tetrapods. And indeed, the creature was a little of each, for along with a fish's scales, fangs and gills, it had anatomical features usually found only in animals that spend at least some of their time on land. It is, in short, exactly the sort of transitional animal Darwinian theory predicts, with new physical traits gradually emerging to help it thrive in a novel environment. And it has become scientists' Exhibit A in their long-running debate with creationists and other antievolutionists who have been using the lack...
...eyes mounted on the top of its head like a crocodile. It also had a big, interlocking rib cage, suggesting that it had lungs and did at least part of its breathing through them, as well as a trunk strong enough to support itself in the shallows or on land. And most startling of all, when technicians dissected its pectoral fins, they found the beginnings of a tetrapod hand, complete with a primitive version of a wrist and five fingerlike bones. "This is not some archaic branch of the animal kingdom," says Shubin. "This is our branch. You're looking...
Together, these fossils have overturned the old picture of the fish-tetrapod transition, which conjured up the image of creatures like the modern lungfish crawling out of water onto land. That picture certainly didn't fit Acanthostega, whose short, flimsy legs were ill equipped for terrestrial locomotion. Rather, according to University of Cambridge paleontologist Jennifer Clack, Acanthostega was an aquatic creature that used its limbs and lungs to make a living in water. And that scenario makes sense because it sets up conditions for natural selection--the force that powers evolution--to favor transitional life-forms like the fishapod, with...
...called for. The Hollywood star has prompted major buzz--and sellout crowds--for her impending Broadway debut, in Richard Greenberg's play Three Days of Rain, opening officially on April 19. So I wandered down to the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater to see just how tough it is to land a ticket. Very tough, I learned: only a stray seat in the back row or way off to the side, even for performances weeks away. Unless you're willing to indulge in a relatively new Broadway pastime: the "premium" seat...