FISH FINGERS: THE DEEP HISTORY OF YOUR HANDS

Elpistostege watsoniBefore hands held paintbrushes, kneaded bread or fumbled for reading glasses already perched on our heads, their evolutionary beginnings were underwater. The fossil record has receipts. Meet Elpistostege watsoni, a Late Devonian fish from what is now Québec whose fins contained an extraordinary arrangement of bones: the beginnings of a hand, still wearing its swimming costume.

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