Chinese scientists have found a new tetrapod fossil called Sinostega pani, a discovery which pushes back the earliest date of the existence of the four-footed reptiles in Asia by nearly 100 million years.
Scientists with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have published their findings in the British magazine Nature.
The earliest tetrapods, or four-limbed vertebrates, date from the late Devonian Period, 370-350 million years ago. According to the report, Sinostega pani is the 10th tetrapod fossil from that period found so far.
The new fossil was discovered in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, in northwestern China, in July 2002. The scientists also report it was the first discovery in Asia of Devonian tetrapod that dated back about 355 million years ago, a finding that substantially extends the geographic range of these animals and poses new questions about their dispersal.
Prof. Zhu Min, director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, suggested that the appearance of tetrapods and the landing of vertebrates can be seen as vital in the evolutionary history of living things.
The earliest tetrapods provide a wealth of the most direct information to help scientists to fully understand how the ancestors of human beings arrived on land from their original marshes.
This important discovery represented the latest development in tetrapod research, Zhu added.
(People?s Daily December 23, 2002)
