Earliest 4-legged Animal Fossil Discovered

The study further fills in the morphological gap between tetrapods and lungfish and unveils the evolutionary pattern of character changes during the initial diversification of stem-tetrapods, the report said.

In addition, an X-ray tomography study of the skull has provided new fossil evidence on the origin of the tetrapod brain.

A simulation of its brain conditions indicated that some important brain modifications related to terrestrial life occurred at the beginning of tetrapod evolution, much earlier than previously thought, the report said.

The newly discovered stem-tetrapod was named "Tungsenia paradoxa," a tribute to renowned Chinese geologist Liu Dongsheng (1917-2008), who won China's top science award in 2004.