Why did some of our ancient fishapod relatives turn back to the water?
In short: While many fishapods were evolving to crawl onto land, others made a surprising evolutionary U-turn. This episode explores the history of these ancient relatives that chose to return to the water instead of colonizing terrestrial environments.
During the period when early fishapod relatives were beginning to transition toward life on land, a distinct group reversed this trend. Rather than continuing the move to terrestrial habitats, these creatures turned back and returned to the water.
This episode from the PBS Eons series, released on October 4, 2022, examines this evolutionary pivot. It highlights the complex, non-linear nature of life's history on Earth, illustrating that the path to land was not a universal goal for all early tetrapod-like ancestors.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Our Ancient Relative That Said 'No Thanks' To Land
- Also: Eons | Our Ancient Relative That Said 'No Thanks' To Life On Land | Season 5 | Episode 2
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