from water to land

From Water to Land (Revision) Abstract: The early tetrapods were the first vertebrates to actually walk the solid earth. They began their conquest of land in the Paleozoic era around 360 million years ago. The question many paleontologists have been asking for a long period of time is whether the anatomy for locomotion on land was developed in water for swimming purposes, or if it was adapted after the creatures became terrestrial. Recent findings of fossils …

…a feature evolved to do one thing may turn out later to do another thing even better. References Gardiner, David M., Torok, Maureen A., Mullen, Lina M., Bryant, Susan V. (September 1998). Evolution of vertebrate limbs: robust morphology and flexible development. American Zoologist, v38, n4 659 McAuliffe, Kathleen. (August, 1993). Retracing the footsteps of evolution. (fossil remains of an early tetrapod discovered in a museum) Omni v15, n10, 16 Zimmer, Carl. (June, 1995). Coming onto the land. Discover v16, n6 , 118