Page "Transitional fossil" Paragraph 20

Tiktaalik lived approximately 375 million years ago.

Paleontologists suggest that it is representative of the transition between non-tetrapod vertebrates such as Panderichthys, known from fossils 380 million years old, and early tetrapods such as Acanthostega and Ichthyostega, known from fossils about 365 million years old.

Its mixture of primitive fish and derived tetrapod characteristics led one of its discoverers, Neil Shubin, to characterize Tiktaalik as a " fishapod ".

Unlike many previous, more fish-like transitional fossils, the " fins " of Tiktaalik have basic wrist bones and simple rays reminiscent of fingers.

They may have been weight bearing.

Like all modern tetrapods, it had rib bones, a mobile neck with a separate pectoral girdle, and lungs, though it had the gills, scales, and fins of a fish.