#tetrapods — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

So if I understood this article correctly, the key conclusion is this - metamorphosis was not the condition for moving onto land?

The traditional picture was:

Tetrapods could leave water because they first evolved a tadpole-like larval stage and then metamorphosed.

The new interpretation suggested by these fossils is closer to:

Tetrapods gradually adapted to land over evolutionary time, and they probably did not need a frog-like metamorphosis to do it.

In other words, metamorphosis was probably not a prerequisite for terrestrial life. Instead, the transition from water to land appears to have been a long, gradual evolutionary process affecting the whole life cycle, rather than depending on a distinct larval stage.

Analogy of two possible scenarios:

Old model

Young live in water.
Undergo a major developmental transition.
Adults become adapted to life on land.

New model

Young and adults share the same basic body plan.
Land adaptations accumulate gradually over millions of years (generations).

So the narrative shifts from:

Metamorphosis enabled the move onto land

to:

The move onto land happened gradually, and amphibian-style metamorphosis likely evolved later as a specialized adaptation.

https://www.404media.co/a-new-fossil-discovery-just-rewrote-150-years-of-evolutionary-theory

#Biology #Evolutionary #EvolutionaryBiology #Fossil #Discovery #Metamorphosis #Tetrapods #Science