Australian fossil pushes first steps on to land back in time

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2006

SYDNEY (AFP) — An Australian fossil find may mean living creatures left the world's oceans for the land much earlier than once thought, rewriting a small part of mankind's evolution, scientists said. A study of rocks collected near Buchan in Victoria state's East Gippsland has yielded a lung fish fossil more than 20 million years older than earlier finds, Macquarie University researcher Zarena Johanson told AFP.

Her Macquarie colleague, Professor John Talent who found the rocks, said the fossilized lung fish -- or coelacanth -- sets back the timeline for when marine animals made their first excursions on to land. "It seems from experimental data with living coelacanths that there should have been older ones," Talent said. "What we've done is close the gap -- we've got the...