科学家发现最早的四足动物
作者：小柯机器人 发布时间：2019/10/24 15:32:17
瑞典乌普萨拉大学Per Erik Ahlberg小组发现了最早的四足动物。2019年10月24日出版的《自然》杂志发表了相关成果。
研究人员发现了被命名为Parmastega aelidae gen. et sp. nov.的物种，这是一种来自俄罗斯的四足动物，可追溯到法门阶时期早期（约3.72亿年前），其三维素材能够重建头骨和肩胛带。该物种的骨骼结构表明它是一种主要在水面上行走的动物。系统发育分析表明，Parmastega是其他四足动物的近亲。
据介绍，近几十年来，泥盆纪时期四足动物的已知多样性显著增加，但其化石记录主要仅仅包括碎片。泥盆纪四足动物的形态和古生物学的解释框架主要由近乎完整的鱼石螈（Ichthyostega）和棘螈（Acanthostega）化石主导； Ventastega和Tulerpeton不太完整但部分可重构，具有支撑作用。这四个属均可追溯到法门阶（Famennian）时代晚期（大约365-3.59亿年前），它们比已知的最早的四足动物化石碎片晚1千万年，比已知的最古老的四足动物足迹晚近3000万年。
附：英文原文
Title:Morphology of the earliest reconstructable tetrapod Parmastega aelidae
Author:Pavel A. Beznosov, Jennifer A. Clack, Ervīns Lukševi?s, Marcello Ruta & Per Erik Ahlberg
Issue&Volume:Volume 574 Issue 7779
Abstract:
The known diversity of tetrapods of the Devonian period has increased markedly in recent decades, but their fossil record consists mostly of tantalizing fragments1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15. The framework for interpreting the morphology and palaeobiology of Devonian tetrapods is dominated by the near complete fossils of Ichthyostega and Acanthostega; the less complete, but partly reconstructable, Ventastega and Tulerpeton have supporting roles2,4,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34. All four of these genera date to the late Famennian age (about 365–359 million years ago)—they are 10 million years younger than the earliest known tetrapod fragments5,10, and nearly 30 million years younger than the oldest known tetrapod footprints35. Here we describe Parmastega aelidae gen. et sp. nov., a tetrapod from Russia dated to the earliest Famennian age (about 372 million years ago), represented by three-dimensional material that enables the reconstruction of the skull and shoulder girdle. The raised orbits, lateral line canals and weakly ossified postcranial skeleton of P. aelidae suggest a largely aquatic, surface-cruising animal. In Bayesian and parsimony-based phylogenetic analyses, the majority of trees place Parmastega as a sister group to all other tetrapods.
DOI:10.1038/s41586-019-1636-y
期刊信息
Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：43.07
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html