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Life

The fishy origin of our fingers and toes

By Jeff Hecht

24 October 2007

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…

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