Multimedia Gallery
Fossil Fish Tiktaalik roseae
The 375 million-year-old fossil fish Tiktaalik roseae, a large aquatic predator with flattened head and body, represents an important intermediate step in the evolutionary transition from fish to animals that walked on land. Results from a research study funded by the National Science Foundation show that the transition from aquatic to terrestrial lifestyle involved complex changes not only to appendages (fins to limbs) but also to the internal head skeleton.
This image accompanied NSF press release, "Details of Evolutionary Transition from Fish to Land Animals Revealed."
Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation
See other images like this on your iPhone or iPad download NSF Science Zone on the Apple App Store.
Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.
Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.
Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.
Also Available:
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (1 MB)
Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.