Walking fish suggests locomotion control evolved much earlier than thought
February 8, 2018, Cell Press
Cartoons that illustrate evolution depict early vertebrates generating primordial limbs as they move onto land for the first time. But new findings indicate that some of these first ambulatory creatures may have stayed under water, spawning descendants that today exhibit walking behavior on the ocean floor. The results appear February 8 in the journal Cell.
"It has generally been thought that the ability to walk is something that evolved as vertebrates transitioned from sea to land," says senior author Jeremy Dasen (@JeremyDasen), a developmental neurobiologist in the Department of Neuroscience and Physiology at the New York University School of Medicine. "We were surprised to learn that certain species of fish also can walk. In addition, they use a neural and genetic developmental program that is almost identical to the one used by higher vertebrates, including humans."
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-fish-locomotion-evolved-earlier-thought.html#jCp
