Out of Antarctica When we think of Devonian tetrapods, the ancestors of all modern vertebrates, we tend to picture amphibian-like creatures emerging from the water into a wet tropical forest or swamp. Indeed, all previously described specimens of this group have been recovered from the tropics. Gess and Ahlberg now describe two fossil tetrapods from Devonian Antarctica. Thus, the distribution of tetrapods may have been global, which encourages us to rethink the environments in which this important group was shaped. Science, this issue p. 1120 Fossil evidence of Devonian (~400-million-year-old) tetrapods from Antarctica. Until now, all known fossils of tetrapods (limbed vertebrates with digits) and near-tetrapods (such as Elpistostege, Tiktaalik, and Panderichthys) from the Devonian period have come from localities in tropical to subtropical paleolatitudes. Most are from Laurussia, a continent incorporating Europe, Greenland, and North America, with only one body fossil and one footprint locality from Australia representing the southern supercontinent Gondwana. Here we describe two previously unknown tetrapods from the Late Devonian (late Famennian) Gondwana locality of Waterloo Farm in South Africa, then located within the Antarctic Circle, which demonstrate that Devonian tetrapods were not restricted to warm environments and suggest that they may have been global in distribution.

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泥盆纪南极圈内的四足动物群

在南极洲之外 当我们想到泥盆纪四足动物（所有现代脊椎动物的祖先）时，我们往往会想象出类似两栖动物的生物从水中出现在潮湿的热带森林或沼泽中。事实上，该组所有先前描述的标本都是从热带地区发现的。Gess 和 Ahlberg 现在描述了来自泥盆纪南极洲的两种化石四足动物。因此，四足动物的分布可能是全球性的，这鼓励我们重新思考这个重要群体的形成环境。科学，这个问题 p。1120 来自南极洲的泥盆纪（约 4 亿年前）四足动物的化石证据。到目前为止，所有已知的四足动物（有指的四肢脊椎动物）和近四足动物（如 Elpistostege、Tiktaalik、和 Panderichthys）来自泥盆纪的地方，位于热带到亚热带的古纬度地区。大多数来自劳鲁西亚，这是一个包含欧洲、格陵兰岛和北美的大陆，只有一个身体化石和一个来自澳大利亚的脚印地点代表南部超级大陆冈瓦纳大陆。在这里，我们描述了来自南非滑铁卢农场晚泥盆世（晚法门世）冈瓦纳地区的两个以前未知的四足动物，它们位于南极圈内，这表明泥盆纪四足动物不仅限于温暖的环境，并表明它们可能是全球性的在分布。只有一个身体化石和一个来自澳大利亚的脚印地点，代表了南部超大陆冈瓦纳大陆。在这里，我们描述了来自南非滑铁卢农场晚泥盆世（晚法门世）冈瓦纳地区的两个以前未知的四足动物，它们位于南极圈内，这表明泥盆纪四足动物不仅限于温暖的环境，并表明它们可能是全球性的在分布。只有一个身体化石和一个来自澳大利亚的脚印地点，代表了南部超大陆冈瓦纳大陆。在这里，我们描述了来自南非滑铁卢农场晚泥盆世（晚法门世）冈瓦纳地区的两个以前未知的四足动物，它们位于南极圈内，这表明泥盆纪四足动物不仅限于温暖的环境，并表明它们可能是全球性的在分布。