The Fishy Flag Report

It brings a new meaning to the term fish fingers. Our fingers and toes really did evolve from the fins of ancient fish, a discovery that finally resolves a debate over when digits first appeared.

All land animals with a backbone, otherwise known as tetrapods, evolved from lobe-finned fish that existed hundreds of millions of years ago. These fish had lungs and muscular, paired fins. The fin bones of both fossil lobe-finned fish and the four surviving species of related fish are similar to those of tetrapod limbs, but they do not appear to have any bones that could have gone on to produce digits. Instead, they have a series of fine bones called radials at the edge of their fins.

"That lack of digits would imply that hands and feet evolved quite abruptly, when animals were making the transition from water to land," says Per Ahlberg of Uppsala University ...