Scholar to Speak on Fish That Could Do Push-Ups

Tiktaalik roseae, an ancient fish that could “paddle and also do push-ups,” may be a link between fish and land animals, according to Neil Shubin, a biology professor who will give a public lecture at the University of Utah on Wednesday.

The Frontiers of Science lecture, which is free, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the U.’s Aline Wilmot Skaggs Biology Building auditorium. Shubin is a University of Chicago professor of biology and anatomy.

The 375 million-year-old fossil was discovered in the Canadian Arctic in 2004 by Shubin and colleagues, according to a press release. To date, 20 specimens are known.

“Its discovery highlights a pivotal point in the history of life on Earth,” adds the release. That point is when the first fish ventured onto land.

That was about 12 million years before the first four-legged animals, but specialized features in the fish point to eventual evolution of land animals. These include the first shoulders, neck, limbs, elbows and wrist-joints, the release adds.

Science believed the fish lived in shallow water close to shore, where Tiktaalik used “its strong front fins to push along the bottom and stabilize itself in moving water,” Shubin said, according to the release.

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