Research News
Assessing the Limb Mobility of the Early Four-Legged Vertebrate Animal Ichthyostega
23 May 2012
Research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, and published in the journal Nature, has revealed how the early four-legged vertebrate (tetrapod) called Ichthyostega, moved on land.
The study, conducted by Dr. Stephanie E Pierce and Professor John R Hutchinson from the Royal Veterinary College and Professor Jennifer A Clack from the University of Cambridge, examined limb mobility in the 360 million year old fossil tetrapod by reconstructing the first ever three-dimensional computer model of its skeleton.
Three-dimensional computer model of a tetrapod skeleton
Further information
Full details: Assessing the Limb Mobility of the Early Four-Legged Vertebrate Animal Ichthyostega.
Pierce, SE; Clack, JA; Hutchinson, JR
Three-dimensional limb joint mobility in the early tetrapod Ichthyostega
Nature (2012). doi:10.1038/nature11124
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