Blind fish that crawls on land provides clues to tetrapod evolution

So could this fishy fishy fishy be a relative of the "walking fish" that eventually gave way to walking tetrapods? Well, have a look...



Researchers have rediscovered this very rare little blind cave dwelling fish in Thailand called Cryptotora thamicola, which has the uncanny ability and physiology to climb up rocky walls along waterfalls. Wowzas.

In many ways, the skeleton of the fish looked like what you’d see on a walking tetrapod. “I literally thought someone was playing a trick on me,” she said.

In typical fish, the pelvis is just a pair of small bones floating in the body wall. Fish use the bones only to stabilize their pelvic fins, so that they can stop themselves from rolling over.

In the waterfall-climbing cave fish, on the other hand, the pelvis is a complex of bones that is fused to the spine by elongated ribs. It’s the same arrangement that tetrapods evolved, allowing them to hold themselves up with their hind legs.

Typical fish also have small vertebrae that don’t overlap, allowing them to bend their bodies as they swim. But the waterfall-climbing cave fish has the same overlapping growths on their vertebrae that stiffen the spine in tetrapods.

“Functionally, it makes perfect sense, but to see it in a fish is incredibly wild,” Dr. Flammang said.

Very interesting I'd say.

www.nature.com...
www.nytimes.com...

It's always nice to find organisms like this in modern times. It definitely gives us a lot of information on what to look for in the fossil record, as well as a more accurate portrayal of how some physiological traits functioned way back when

This is obviously a ruse by Satan to pull people away from creationism and adopt his theory of evolution.

/sarcasm

Great find. S&F

a reply to: PhotonEffect

Greetings- If You like that You'll LOVE the Snakehead en.wikipedia.org...(fish)

www.washingtonpost.com... c-11e5-b3ac-8a79bc44e5e2_story.html

This fish, if caught, You are REQUIRED by law to cut them in half! They say to do this because this fish has the ability to breathe air like You and I, but they can also WALK on land! More like a sashay to and fro..

These have even spawned (pun intended) a movie of the same name..

I detest catching the Chain Pickerel due to the teeth but one of these would wreck My whole week because I have to slay it.. Question? What if I caught a Snakehead and fed it to My Spirit Guide the discolored Ibis? Extra karma or reverse karma?

Inmate #1) What are You in for?
Inmate #2) Burglary, You?
Inmate #1) Murder and conspiracy..
Inmate #1) (While pointing at You.. What are You here for?

Me: I didn't kill a Snakehead while out fishing.. Nice that they let Me wear My boat shoes in General Population...

Tight Lines.

a reply to: PhotonEffect

More a case of parallel evolution I suspect.