This 375-million-year-old fish, the closest known relative of the ancestors of limbed animals such as humans, likely evolved the foundation for rear legs even before the move to land, researchers say.
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00:00Music
00:16And the name of this missing link is Titalic rosei.
00:20It means large, shallow water fish in the Nunavut language of northern Canada.
00:25The fossilised bones of Titalic show just how much it is a missing link between fish and animals.
00:31It had scales and fins like a fish, but its bones are very similar to ours of our bodies today.
00:37This is the shoulder bone, and you can see the socket where the arm fitted in.
00:42This, although it's short and stubby, is the humerus, the bone of the upper arm here.
00:48These two are the radius and ulna, the two bones of the lower arm.
00:52There are wrist bones here, but instead of fingers, because it not yet evolved properly,
00:57there are rays like the fins of a fish.
01:00It's one of those fossils that shows us a stage where we've acquired some of the features of a major group,
01:07but not all of them.
01:08So, in a sense, it's equivalent to that proto-bird called Archaeopteryx,
01:14which has got some features of reptiles. It's got a long tail, it's got teeth and so on.
01:20But it's also got feathers and wings, so it's got bird features as well.
01:24So, it's that kind of combination of characters.
01:28Actually, we're trying to use them.
01:29It's got a lot of attention.
01:30It's got a lot of attention.
01:31It's gotta do.
01:33It's gonna have some other thing like this,
01:34it's gonna have to change the way.
01:35It's gonna move on the other side.
01:37So, so, I'm gonna get rid of some of the colors you can see.
01:40So, I'll do it.
01:41And to the day, I will see you.
01:44I'll do it.
01:45It's gonna be too late.
01:47I'll do it.