ERC Advanced Grant · 2020
The origin of tetrapods (land vertebrates) during the Devonian period, a key event for the terrestrial ecosystem, is illuminated by splendid fossil discoveries but very ill-served by the dominant theoretical framework. This framework has two weaknesses: the persistence of a simplistic evolutionary scenario that has already been falsified, and a failure to properly consider the place of tetrapods in the developing terrestrial ecosystem. The scenario envisages tetrapods evolving from ‘elpistostegids’ like Tiktaalik in an aquatic environment during the Late Devonian, but fails to account for the existence of tetrapod trackways that are older than the elpistostegids, and cannot explain the…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.