EvolutionJune 1, 2020
How a 380-Million-Year-Old Fish Gave Us Fingers
A remarkable fossil reveals that the digits in our hands evolved before vertebrates emerged from the water to colonize land
Stories by Richard Cloutier
is a professor-researcher in evolutionary biology at the University of Québec at Rimouski. His research interests revolve around the evolutionary patterns and mechanisms of early vertebrates, as well as the evolutionary developmental biology of recent fishes and amphibians. He has been working on the fauna, paleoecology and paleoenvironment of the Devonian Miguasha fossil site for more than 30 years.