45 results about "Tetrapod" patented technology

Tetrapods (/ˈtɛtrəpɒd/; from Greek: τετρα- "four" and πούς "foot") are four-limbed (with a few exceptions, such as snakes) animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda. It includes extant and extinct amphibians, reptiles (including dinosaurs and therefore birds), and mammals. Tetrapods evolved from a group of animals known as the Tetrapodomorpha which, in turn, evolved from ancient Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fishes) around 390 million years ago in the middle Devonian period; their forms were transitional between lobe-finned fishes and the four-limbed tetrapods. The first tetrapods (from a traditional, apomorphy-based perspective) appeared by the late Devonian, 367.5 million years ago; the specific aquatic ancestors of the tetrapods, and the process by which they colonized Earth's land after emerging from water remains unclear. The change from a body plan for breathing and navigating in water to a body plan enabling the animal to move on land is one of the most profound evolutionary changes known. The first tetrapods were primarily aquatic. Modern amphibians, which evolved from earlier groups, are generally semiaquatic; the first stage of their lives is as fish-like tadpoles, and later stages are partly terrestrial and partly aquatic. However, most tetrapod species today are amniotes, most of those are terrestrial tetrapods whose branch evolved from earlier tetrapods about 340 million years ago (crown amniotes evolved 318 million years ago). The key innovation in amniotes over amphibians is laying of eggs on land or having further evolved to retain the fertilized egg(s) within the mother.