Walking fish and terrestrial evolutionary origin

New research on 'walking fish' has helped discover the secret of the evolution of animals when migrating from the sea to the land 400 million years ago.

The small polypterus fish has a very normal appearance, but they possess special skills: equipped with fish and lungs, can live on land for up to 2 years in a humid environment.

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The ability to live long on land, along with the appearance of fish species that lived hundreds of millions of years ago, has transformed the pappterus into a perfect model to test hypotheses about the migration of marine organisms to land. .

Expert Emily Standen and colleagues at McGill University (Canada) have raised two groups of fish in water and land environments, according to a Nature report.

By the end of the experiment, which took place nearly a year, they found that the group raised on the mainland had walked better than the underwater group.

Besides, the terrestrial group's body has changed, with the fins in the fins becoming harder.

Not only that, changes in the terrestrial group are very similar to the changes observed in fish fossils that evolved to suit the life on land, about 400 million years ago.

From the study, experts say they have captured new ideas about how fossils used to travel on land.