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According to studies conducted by paleontologists over the years into fossils and bones belonging to historic vertebrates such as amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, a rough timeline as to when they evolved from sea to land had been established.

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The discovery of new fossils in Poland now indicate that the transition of sea to land that is crucial to the understanding of evolution may have actually occurred some 18 million years earlier than it was previously thought.

This means that perhaps the existence of vertebrates on land might have occurred a little bit differently than scientists assumed previously. It was once thought that the transition from water to land was fast and furious; now based on the age of this newly discovered elpistostegid fossil, it seems that it might have occurred at a slower pace. Now, scientists believe that our vertebrate ancestors may have come upon land strictly to feed upon marine life that was stranded by the receding tide; returning to the waters to live. Eventually, land dwelling became a permanent transition.

While this gives us an early look into the history of evolution and animals, it also gives us a better glimpse into our own background since we, as humans, come from some of these earliest vertebrate species.

Note: these particular fossils that have been discovered are fossil footprints left by back-boned land animals.

Image Via: Flickr Creative Commons User Greg Carley with an example of a fossilized footprint from a dinosaur

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