First footfall:the first animals ever to walk on dry land

McNamara, K. J. (2013) First footfall:the first animals ever to walk on dry land. GeoScientist, 23 (11). pp. 10-15. ISSN ISSN: 0961-5628, ESSN: 2045-1784

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Abstract

The world in which animals took their first tentative footsteps on land was a very different one from today. No verdant meadows, nor forests. Not a fern to be seen. The only plants were mosses and liverworts, clinging to rocks in wet places. For the most part the land was a bare, windswept world, probably not too dissimilar to the surface of Mars. Yet for some reason, some animals decided to leave the oceans, rivers and lakes, and venture on to this largely barren surface. Like the first Mars Rover that left its distinctive marks on virgin Martian soils, the first animals to drag themselves out of their aqueous world onto a harsh landscape at least 450 million years ago, left their own distinctive traces.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	2013AREP; IA66;
Subjects:	04 - Palaeobiology
Divisions:	04 - Palaeobiology
Journal or Publication Title:	GeoScientist
Volume:	23
Page Range:	pp. 10-15
Depositing User:	Sarah Humbert
Date Deposited:	20 Dec 2013 17:14
Last Modified:	14 Feb 2014 18:05
URI:	http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/id/eprint/2934

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