The Fish-Tetrapod Transition (Summer Repeat)

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest changes in the history of life on Earth. Around 400 million years ago some of our ancestors, the fish, started to become a little more like humans. At the swampy margins between land and water, some fish were turning their fins into limbs, their swim bladders into lungs and developed necks and eventually they became tetrapods, the group to which we and all animals with backbones and limbs belong. After millions of years of this transition, these tetrapod descendants of fish were now ready to leave the water for a new life of walking on land, and with that came an explosion in the diversity of life on Earth.

With

Emily Rayfield Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Bristol

Michael Coates Chair and Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago

And

Steve Brusatte Professor of Palaeontology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh

Producer: Simon Tillotson

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before this BBC podcast kicks off, I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy.
0:05.0	My name's Will Wilkin and I Commission Music Podcast for the BBC.
0:08.0	It's a really cool job, but every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs, moments and movements,
0:14.7	stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous.
0:19.1	And the BBC's position at the heart of British music means we can tell those stories like no one else.
0:24.6	We were, are and always will be right there at the center of the narrative.
0:28.6	So whether you want an insightful take on music right now or a nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and
0:34.4	infamous moments in music check out the music podcasts on BBC Sounds.
0:38.6	BBC Sounds music radio podcasts.
0:44.0	In our time is on its annual break and we'll be back on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds on the 19th of September.
0:50.3	Until then, each week we're offering an episode chosen from our archive of more than a thousand
0:55.1	programs which I hope you'll enjoy.
0:57.1	Have a good summer.
0:58.1	Hello, around 400 million years ago, some of our ancestors, the the fish started to become a little more like
1:05.2	us and this was one of the greatest revolutions in the history of life. At the
1:10.3	swampy margins between land and water, some fish turn fins into limbs, swim bladders into
1:16.6	lungs, developed necks, and became tetrapods, the group to which we and all animals
1:22.2	with backbones and limbs belong.
1:24.1	And these descendants of fish having transitioned into
1:27.4	tetrapods were now ready for the new life of walking on land and
1:31.1	with that an explosion in diversity of life on earth.
1:35.6	With me to discuss the fish tetrapot transition are Emily Rayfield, Professor of Paleobiology
	...

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