Tiktaalik, discovered in 2004, serves as a crucial fossil in understanding the transition from fish to tetrapods, embodying a notable evolutionary link. This fossil was found in Canada and quickly gained recognition for its significance in capturing evolution in action. Measuring about a meter long, Tiktaalik exhibits a hybrid morphology reminiscent of both salamanders and fish, characterized by features such as muscular fins with a prominent bone structure, a neck, a flat head with eyes positioned on top, and a robust rib cage. These adaptations indicate its partial transition to a terrestrial lifestyle while still residing in aquatic environments like tidal flats and shallow streams. The adaptations suggest Tiktaalik utilized its limbs for movement along the bottom, highlighting its role in the evolutionary journey towards land animals. Key evolutionary changes were necessary for survival out of water, primarily transitioning from gill-based respiration to lung use, which involves significant anatomical modifications, particularly in the throat and gill structures. These shifts mark a pivotal evolutionary milestone, providing insights into the adaptations required for life on land.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest changes in the history of life on Earth. Around 400 million years ago some of our ancestors, the fish, started to become a little more like humans. At the swampy margins between land and water, some fish were turning their fins into limbs, their swim bladders into lungs and developed necks and eventually they became tetrapods, the group to which we and all animals with backbones and limbs belong. After millions of years of this transition, these tetrapod descendants of fish were now ready to leave the water for a new life of walking on land, and with that came an explosion in the diversity of life on Earth.
With
Emily Rayfield
Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Bristol
Michael Coates
Chair and Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago
And
Steve Brusatte
Professor of Palaeontology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh
Producer: Simon Tillotson
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production