The missing evolution link: Fish with fingers

London, Sept. 22: It seems that human evolution’s "missing link" has been found —and it is nothing but a fish finger, says a new study.

Yes, finger-like divisions found in the fins of an ancient fish that lived around 385 million years ago have been hailed by Swedish scientists as the possible origin of human hands and fingers.

In the past, it had been concluded that digits only developed after our ancestors made the jump from sea to land 380 million years ago.

But this study has revealed that they were already developing when our ancestors were fish.

"For a long time, we thought that fingers were a novelty for tetrapods. In the past two years, some evidence has come forward to make us doubt. Our study is the final piece of evidence that proves without a doubt that fingers are not new to tetrapods but that they evolved from distal radials, structures present in fish ancestors.

"It’s an important piece of evidence for the evolution of fish to tetrapods and how ‘we’ also transformed from fish to land animals," lead scientist Catherine Boisvert of Uppsala University was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying.

In fact, in their study, the scientists discovered the "missing link" after analysing the fossils of the ancient fish that lived 385 million years ago. The fossils were actually found in Latvia.

Using a CT hospital scanner, Boisvert and colleagues studied the fossil of a Panderichthy that is believed to be a precursor of tetrapods — the ancestors of all limbed vertebrates.

They discovered that the fins were already developing into finger like structure before fish ventured onto land. —PTI

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‘Largest diamond discovered’

London, Sept. 22: A massive gem stone discovered by miners in Lesotho may be the largest polished round diamond in history, dwarfing the Indian-originated Kohinoor diamond which is currently part of the Crown Jewels.

Weighing 478 carats, this is the 20th largest rough diamond ever found. British-based leading global diamond mining business, Gem Diamonds, has revealed that the stone is of outstanding clarity. The stone was found at the Letseng Mine, owned by the company, in Lesotho earlier this week. The clarity and round shape of this gem mean that its worth could be considerably higher than that of another similar sized rough stone from the same mine. —ANI