A trove of fossils in China, unearthed in rock dating back some 436 million years, have revealed for the first time that the mysterious galeaspids, a jawless freshwater fish, possessed paired fins. A ...

All vertebrates have the same basic body plan: head, spine, four appendages. Those appendages vary greatly in size, shape, and function, of course — from fins to wings, arms, and legs — but a new ...

A tiny fossil fish from Alberta is forcing scientists to rethink a story that has sat quietly in textbooks for decades. It is ...

How did digits evolve? While it is clear that they derive from genetic programs already present in fish, their precise origin remains a matter of debate. An international team led by the University of ...

Two males of the cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni, the model organism used to study spine and soft-ray development in Hoech et al. (Credit: Joost Woltering) Two males of the cichlid fish ...

Many fish species evolved parts of their fins into sharp, spiny, needle-like elements -- called fin spines -- that function to protect the fish against predators. Such spines have evolved ...

Peer into any fishbowl, and you’ll see that pet goldfish and guppies have nimble fins. With a few flicks of these appendages, aquarium swimmers can turn in circles, dive deep down or even bob to the ...

The discovery, by an international team, led by Min Zhu of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology, Bejiing and Professor Philip Donoghue from the University of Bristol’s ...