The axial skeleton of the Devonian tetrapod Ichthyostega

Per Erik Ahlberg (), Jennifer A. Clack and Henning Blom
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Per Erik Ahlberg: Uppsala University
Jennifer A. Clack: University of Cambridge
Henning Blom: Uppsala University

Nature, 2005, vol. 437, issue 7055, 137-140

Abstract: Like a fish out of water The origin of tetrapods during the Devonian period, around 350 million years ago, was a key step in vertebrate evolution. The first and arguably the single most important discovery in the study of Devonian tetrapods was Ichthyostega, the four-legged fish from Greenland first described in 1932. Now, based on the original material and more recently collected specimens, a new reconstruction of Ichthyostega has been made. It differs radically from previous versions in having a regionalized vertebral column that bears a striking resemblance to that of a mammal. The presacral vertebral column appears to have almost no lateral flexibility, but there is vertical flexibility in the lumbar region. This suggests that Ichthyostega could move on land using a bilaterally symmetrical ‘shuffling’ action. It may have been an early and ultimately unsuccessful attempt at adapting the tetrapod body plan of terrestrial locomotion, a problem solved by a tetrapod lineage quite closely related to Ichthyostega.

Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1038/nature03893

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