Tides: A key environmental driver of osteichthyan evolution and the fish-tetrapod transition?

ABSTRACT: Tides are a major component of the interaction between the marine and terrestrial environments, and thus play an important part in shaping the environmental context for the evolution of shallow marine and coastal organisms. Here, we use a dedicated tidal model and palaeogeographic reconstructions from the Late Silurian to early Late Devonian (420 Ma, 400 Ma and 380 Ma, Ma = millions of years ago) to explore the potential significance of tides for the evolution of osteichthyans (bony fish) and tetrapods (land vertebrates). The earliest members of the osteichthyan crown-group date to the Late Silurian, approximately 425 Ma, while the earliest evidence for tetrapods is provided by trackways from the Middle Devonian, dated to approximately 393 Ma, and the oldest tetrapod body fossils are Late

SUBMITTER: Byrne HM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7655770 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature