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- Title
Palaeontology: First Devonian tetrapod from Asia.
- Authors
Zhu, Min; Ahlberg, Per E.; Zhao, Wenjin; Jia, Liantao
- Abstract
The earliest tetrapods (vertebrates with limbs rather than paired fins) date from the Late Devonian Period (370–354 million years ago) — nine genera have been described, all of which are from the Euramerican supercontinent that comprises Europe, north America and Greenland, apart from a single Gondwanan genus, Metaxygnathus, from Australia. Here we report the discovery of the first Devonian tetrapod from Asia, a finding that substantially extends the geographical range of these animals and raises new questions about their dispersal. These forms seem to have achieved worldwide distribution and great taxonomic diversity within a relatively short time.
- Subjects
ASIA; FOSSIL animals; DEVONIAN paleontology
- Publication
Nature, 2002, Vol 420, Issue 6917, p760
- ISSN
0028-0836
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/420760a