London - A British scientist yesterday reported the discovery of a type of land vertebrate that died out millions of years ago but may offer new insights into the study of evolution.
Dr Jennifer Clack of Cambridge University discovered fossils of the vertebrate - a tetrapod belonging to a group known as baphetids - in 335million-year-old rocks in central Scotland. The four-legged, 15 cm-long creature is the first reasonably complete example of the baphetid to be found and has several features common to living tetrapods, she wrote in Nature magazine.