Early land animals skipped the tadpole phase
Scientists have discovered that early land animals likely didn’t go through a tadpole stage, challenging long-held assumptions about their development. This finding helps clarify how vertebrates first adapted to land, offering a more accurate view of evolutionary history. It’s good news for biology, as it corrects a misunderstanding and deepens our understanding of life’s transitions.
For decades, biologists thought that early tetrapods, ancient vertebrates that started conquering the land over 300 million years ago, developed like modern amphibians—beginning their lives as purely aquatic tadpoles and then metamorphosing into terrestrial adults. “A lot of that comes from this old…
Ars Technica
