A polydactylous amniote from the Triassic period

Xiao-Chun Wu (), Zhan Li, Bao-Chun Zhou and Zhi-Ming Dong
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Xiao-Chun Wu: Canadian Museum of Nature
Zhan Li: Shanghai Science and Technology Museum
Bao-Chun Zhou: Shanghai Science and Technology Museum
Zhi-Ming Dong: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature, 2003, vol. 426, issue 6966, 516-516

Abstract: Abstract The earliest four-limbed vertebrates, or tetrapods, lived between 370 million and 354 million years ago, during the Late Devonian period, and typically had more than five digits (polydactyly)1. We have discovered that a preaxial form of polydactyly, in which extra digits are positioned anterior to the first digit, has unexpectedly re-emerged in a marine reptile from the Early Triassic period about 242 million years ago — the overall morphology of both the manus and pes closely resemble those of the earliest tetrapods. Until now, no post-Devonian tetrapod has been found with a comparative type of polydactyly, so the new amniote provides a striking example of convergent evolution.

Date: 2003
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DOI: 10.1038/426516a

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