Shifting the Thinking on Tetrapod Evolution: Ancient Four-Limbed Animals Lived Near the Poles (1 of 1) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Shifting the Thinking on Tetrapod Evolution: Ancient Four-Limbed Animals Lived Near the Poles (1 of 1)

Caption

An artist's reconstruction of the Waterloo Farm lagerstatte showing <em>Tutusius</em> at right and <em>Umzantsia</em> on the left." <em>Tutusius</em> is eying <em>Gondwanascorpio emzantsiensis</em> (the oldest terrestrial animal known from Gondwana), whereas <em>Umzantsia</em> is diving down to catch a small <em>Bothriolepis africana</em>. The coelacanths at bottom right are <em>Serenichthys kowiensis</em> (Africa's earliest fossil coelacanths from the world's earliest known coelacanth nursery). They are sheltering in a clump of charophyte algae of the species <em>Octochara crassa</em>. The hazy placoderm silhouettes in the background are <em>Groenlandaspis riniensis</em>. The distant trees and the trunk that <em>Tutusius</em> is resting on represent the progymnosperm tree <em>Archaeopteris notosaria</em>. All these taxa are described from Waterloo Farm. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the 8 June 2018 issue of <i>Science</i>, published by AAAS. The paper, by R. Gess at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, and colleagues was titled, "A tetrapod fauna from within the Devonian Antarctic Circle."

Credit

Maggie Newman

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