‘Tetrapods’ were the first fish to evolve lungs and walk onto land. They were also our ancestors. Now, a new study sheds light on the size and shape of these unique animals’ brains.
The living coelacanth in its natural environment off the South African coast.
Laurent Ballesta, Gombessa expeditions, Andromede Oceanology Ltd (from the book Gombessa, meeting with the coelacanth)
The discovery of a living coelacanth fish rocked the world in 1939, as scientists thought they had died out with the dinosaurs. A new study illuminates how its skull and tiny brain develop.
Coelacanth: extinct for millions of years … then found alive.
By Alberto Fernandez Fernandez, Wikimedia Commons
Sometimes extraordinary species really do appear to come back from the dead.
The skull of Homo naledi is built like those of early Homo species but its brain was just more than half the size of the average ancestor from 2 million years ago.
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