Pre-Reptile Was First to Walk on All Fours

[Anomalocaris]

Weird Pre-Reptile Was First to Walk on All Fours

A pre-reptile that looks like a cross between a modern lizard and a hippo is believed to be the earliest known creature to walk on all fours, according to new research from Brown University.

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[Timothy]

Looks like Spike from 'The Land Before Time'.

[Four Winds]

Looks like Spike from 'The Land Before Time'.

Hehe, I knew I saw that creature somewhere before.

[paperdyer]

The artist gave the critter a cow-like look to his face. I wonder if they would have made good pets?

[Immune to Bieberfever]

Hmm not sure what the evolutionary advance was for that critter to be walking on all four back in a time when the other creatures didn't! So is he the forefather of the cow in that case i understand the 4 legs, gotta run fast when you taste that good!

[Infernal Gnu]

I would be beyond THRILLED to see this magnificent creature in real life, even a fleeting glimpse through a wormhole.

[psyche101]

I find it hard to believe this was the first - it may well be the first found, but there has to be others, it beggars belief that life would grow to the size of a cow before utilising 4 legs.

[Everdred]

I find it hard to believe this was the first - it may well be the first found, but there has to be others, it beggars belief that life would grow to the size of a cow before utilising 4 legs.

It's just a poorly worded headline. They're saying that this is the first creature that stands upright on four legs, i.e. the body is positioned directly above the legs. This is in contrast to previous four-legged creatures where the limbs grow out the side of the torso and then down to the ground (think salamanders, for example). Side legs essentially just evolved out of side fins as the first creatures crawled out of the water, so the idea here, then, is that this creature evolved a new posture which was more energy efficient for life on land and therefore evolutionary advantageous, allowing this creature to spawn numerous later, larger land species.

[BeastieRunner]

Looks like Spike from 'The Land Before Time'.

Haha, I thought the same thing!

[psyche101]

It's just a poorly worded headline. They're saying that this is the first creature that stands upright on four legs, i.e. the body is positioned directly above the legs. This is in contrast to previous four-legged creatures where the limbs grow out the side of the torso and then down to the ground (think salamanders, for example). Side legs essentially just evolved out of side fins as the first creatures crawled out of the water, so the idea here, then, is that this creature evolved a new posture which was more energy efficient for life on land and therefore evolutionary advantageous, allowing this creature to spawn numerous later, larger land species.

This thing was big as a cow though, I just can't see it getting that big without ancestors that have the same body plan, the side legged creatures are quite small by comparison, there seems to be a huge gap here. You do not go from small slithering side legged animals to quadrupedal posture in one creature that is the size of a cow. There has to be many intermediate species yet to be discovered.

[Stardrive]

This thing was big as a cow though, I just can't see it getting that big without ancestors that have the same body plan, the side legged creatures are quite small by comparison, there seems to be a huge gap here.

It lived in the late Triassic period about 8 million years before the Permian extinction. I'd say it's ancestors are yet to be discovered. I think fossil finds from the Triassic period are fairly rare so this isn't over yet by a long shot. This creature may not be the first, but it is the first that we know of as of now.