#  These fins were made for walking 

 





January 15, 2019

 

 

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 We are very honored to have contributed to good friend and colleague Prof. [Jennifer Clack](http://www.theclacks.org.uk/jac/index.html)'s festschrift -- celebrating her ground-breaking career unraveling early tetrapod evolution.

 Dickson, Blake V. & Pierce, Stephanie E. (2019). [How (and why) fins turn into limbs: insights from anglerfish](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/earth-and-environmental-science-transactions-of-royal-society-of-edinburgh/article/how-and-why-fins-turn-into-limbs-insights-from-anglerfish/7D43B7251465600BCC40B23E51D6FBF9). *Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh*, 1-17.

 The #OpenAccess research used contrast-enhanced CT scanning to create 3D reconstructions of the pectoral fins of various anglerfish -- including the amazingly charismatic walking frogfish and batfish. We show that walking anglerfish have bigger and stonger muscles than their non-walking cousins and that their pectoral fin structure has many commonalities with early tetrapods. Below is a fun animation of the 3D musculoskeletal anatomy of the scarlet frogfish *Antennarius coccineus* (MCZ:Ich:6807).

   ![Frogfish_pectoral_fin_PierceLab2019](/sites/g/files/omnuum5771/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/spierce/files/frogfish_pectoral_fin.gif?itok=tWgGsHWi) 

 



 

 

 



 

 

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