Tiktaalik
A flat-headed fish with a neck, ribs and wrists — found by looking in exactly the right rocks.
- When
- Known to
- ± 3 million years
- Era
- Devonian, Paleozoic
Tiktaalik roseae, about 375 million years old, has gills and scales like a fish but a mobile neck, robust ribs, and fins containing the bones of a shoulder, elbow and wrist. It could prop itself up in shallow water. It is famous partly for how it was found: its discoverers predicted the age and environment of rock that should contain such an animal and searched the Canadian Arctic until they found it.