A tiny genetic alteration may have let vertebrates leave the sea – The Economist

ABOUT 370m years ago, in the latter part of the Devonian period, the ancestor of all land vertebrates stepped out of the ocean and began to take advantage of the untapped riches found ashore. This was a big step, both literally and metaphorically, and evolutionary biologists have long assumed that bringing about the anatomical shift from functional fin to proto-leg which enabled it to happen required a fortuitous coincidence of several genetic mutations. This, though, may not be the case. A paper…

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