科学者たちは、オーストラリアと中国の古代魚類化石を分析し、初期脊椎動物が水から陸へ移行した過程についての新たな知見を提供した。これらの研究は、4億年以上前の肺魚の遺骸に焦点を当て、その解剖構造と進化の詳細を明らかにしている。これらの発見は、肺魚が四肢動物（人間を含む）の近縁種である役割を強調している。
オーストラリアのFlinders Universityと中国科学院の研究者らが、約4億年前の後期デボン紀における脊椎動物の進化を理解する上で鍵となる古代肺魚についての2つの研究を発表した。
A cache of 250-million-year-old fossils rediscovered in Australia has shown a diverse community of early ocean predators following Earth's worst mass extinction. These marine amphibians, including species from the trematosaurid group, indicate a rapid global spread in the early Mesozoic era. The findings challenge previous views that limited such creatures to a single species in the southern hemisphere.
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More than 700 fossils from the Jiangchuan Biota in Yunnan Province, southwest China, dating 554-539 million years ago in the late Ediacaran, include early relatives of starfish, acorn worms, deuterostomes, and other bilaterians. Led by Dr. Gaorong Li of Yunnan University, the discovery—after nearly a decade of fieldwork—challenges the suddenness of the Cambrian explosion by showing diverse animal communities predated it. The results, published in Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.adu2291), feature exceptionally preserved carbonaceous films revealing fine details like digestive systems.
Researchers have uncovered evidence that octopuses from the Late Cretaceous period, around 100 million years ago, grew to lengths of nearly 20 meters and hunted as top predators. The findings, based on well-preserved fossil jaws from Japan and Vancouver Island, challenge previous views of early octopus evolution. Professor Yasuhiro Iba of Hokkaido University led the study, published in Science on April 23.
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Researchers at MIT have discovered chemical evidence in rocks over 541 million years old suggesting that ancient sea sponges were among Earth's first animals. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, identify molecular fingerprints matching compounds from modern demosponges. This builds on earlier work and confirms the signals originate from biological sources rather than geological processes.