Evolution Diary

The discovery in Australia of a 400 million year-old fish fossil offers a new insight into how fish evolved into land animals.

The skeleton of the Gogonasus fish from the Devonian period was uncovered during a Museum Victoria expedition in Western Australia’s remote Kimberley region last year.

Preserved in three-dimensional form, the fossil is the first complete and perfect skeleton of the types of fish that gave rise to the first land animals.

The Gogonasus fossil shows the ancient marine fish had large holes in its skull for breathing, and also had muscular front fins with well-formed limbs, like a human arm.

Dr John Long, who led the expedition, said the transition from a fish living in water to an air-breathing land animal with arms and legs was one of the most dramatic transitions in the history of evolution.

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