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Tetrapods
Overview of Tetrapods
- Four limbs with digits
- Tetra = "four", Pods = "feet"
- Limbs: are able to support weight on land
- Efficient for walking
- Head: is separated from body by a neck
- Could look up and down
- Then side to side
- Pelvic girdle: is fused to backbone
- where hind limbs are attached
- Adults lack gills
- Gills become ears, glands and structures during development
Evolution of Tetrapods
- Devonian lobe-finned fish
- Likely used lungs to breathe air
- Used robust fins to move on land
- Tiktaalik: Fossil of key early tetrapod evolution
- Had fish features
- Fins
- Gills
- Lungs
- Scales
- Had tetrapod features
- Ribs: Provide structure to take a full breathe of air
- Neck and Shoulders: Allows movement of the head
- Front limbs had same skeletal structure as all tetrapods
- Humerus attaches to two bones (radius and ulna) followed by the wrist
- More robust pelvis
- Could likely prop itself up and move on land
Practice: Overview of Tetrapods
Which of the following are derived traits in tetrapods? (select all that apply)
Practice: Tetrapods
Which of the following was an important fossil that depicted tetrapod transition from water to land?
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