Ellesmere Island find fills in gap in fossil record

A missing link between fish and land-loving animals has been found in a fossil bed on Ellesmere Island, scientists reported Wednesday.

Tiktaalik roseae lived 375 million years ago, and represents a long-sought link to the time when animals were first moving out of the primordial ocean and onto land, say scientists.

The creature, which has a head that looks like a crocodile and a body resembling a fish, helps fill a gap in evolutionary history.

Neil Shubin, a University of Chicago professor and one of the leaders of the team that found the creature after a four-year search, said researchers are getting a groundbreaking look at the evolution of fish and animals.

Three specimens of the one-to-2.5-metre long creature were found in the rocks of Ellesmere after a four-year long search in the area. The new animal shows both fish and animal traits, with the scales and fins of a fish, but the ribs, neck, head and appendage bones are like those of a land animal.

The name "Tiktaalik" comes from the Inuktitut "large freshwater fish." The name was supplied by Inuit elders in Nunavut.

Researchers had to brave cold, wind, and watch out for wandering polar bears during their search of Devonian-era rock formations on Ellesmere Island, far above the Arctic Circle.

The researchers set out in 1999 to look for what are called elpistostegid fish, a group considered to be most closely related to tetrapods. Tetrapods are animals with limbs and include amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals including humans.

The findings appear in the journal Nature Thursday.

(with notes from Canadian Press)